


A Second Glance: at Twenty Years

by Valkrez



Series: A Second Glance [5]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/F, Fluff without Plot, Gay Sex, Married Life, Non-Canonical Character Death, Slice of Life, Snippets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-03 23:39:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 41,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10977798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valkrez/pseuds/Valkrez
Summary: They decided on a life together, but what would that entail?A collection of shorts exploring the life of Korra and Asami Sato, taking place between Book IV and Book V of Avatar: Legend of Korra





	1. 174 AG

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Avatar: Legend of Korra, its characters or its universe. Nickelodeon does.

The arching roof of the cavern was lost in darkness, but sparkling among the shadows was a mosaic crafted from minuscule points of light, millions beyond count. They clustered together like starbursts and bloomed in variations of green and white in a rhythm all their own. The highest reaches of the cavern were dominated by the two colossal koi bodies which swam in the ethers between worlds, following after one another in an endless cycle of light and dark; push and pull; time and space; life and death; Tui and La.

Watching the Spirits from a bed of soft moss and lichen below, Korra felt as if she were in a trance and that if she could simply lay there beneath the mirror of the Spirit Oasis, she might drift into apophenia to understand the cosmic answers etched into the patterns above. Truthfully it could not be that simple, however. Despite how her spiritual center sang to be at such peace, her human nature was somewhat distracted by the close touch of the body beside hers.

Asami was staring up at the canopy, which this corner of the Spirit World had provided them, with a similar expression of dreamy euphoria. The only image which could have torn Korra's attention from the Spirits of Moon and Ocean was the afterglow of her girlfriend. Their fingers linked on top the bedroll and Korra gave the other woman's a slight press.

"I'm glad we waited," she murmured and was met with Asami's smile.

"Me too,” she whispered. “This seemed to really fit."

Korra tensed, waiting.

"I mean, you fit really we-"

She groaned, feeling her own blush and Asami giggled as she curled up around her, threading long fingers into the Avatar's tresses.

"I knew you were going to turn that into a dirty joke," Korra grumbled.

Asami tossed her hair. "It was just a little one," she glossed a kiss over Korra's chin and then motioned at the grand silhouettes of the koi Spirits above them. "You don't think they were watching... do you?"

Korra scoffed as her fingers played up Asami’s bare arm. "They're watching the cosmos. I doubt they even have any idea we exist."

They had found the cave entrance by mistake and had wandered in with the same brazen curiosity with which they had been exploring all of the Spirit World since their entry through the portal. Their inquisitiveness shifted into wonder once they discovered the glass-like pool at the end of the cave's corridor, and once they swam through to the mossy island in the center to see the Spirits above they realized exactly where they were. They had stripped from their wet clothes to dry and everything else had seemed to simply fall into place.

They had elected to take their time as they explored the Spirit World, following an unspoken agreement that rushing anywhere or into anything was an unnecessary strain. The two had experienced a lot in their years together and much of it too quickly, but laying as they were now with lazy, whimsy-laced smiles it was easy for Korra to imagine that time wasn't something they needed to worry about any longer. They'd be together, one way or another.

Asami's fingers began to drift down the line of Korra's neck, rolling reverently along her skin and the Water Tribe woman rose into the touch, shifting closer with a fresh heat strumming through her veins. No sooner had Asami's body layered overtop hers, however, than a voice from some misplaced direction broke through their reprieve.

"Humans!" The voice spat and Asami rolled from Korra into their bedroll with a start. The Avatar shot upright, looking for the source and finding a tall toad-like Spirit in grass armor standing at the edge of the island. Its skin glowed a luminous blue and it carried a twisted spear which did not look dissimilar from a palm frond. "I can't believe this!" The Spirit continued, aghast. "I leave the sacred pool for two weeks and a pair of _humans_ sneak in and... and..." it pointed a fat-toed finger in their direction. "Are you two _mating_?!"

Korra's embarrassment melted into quick, thunderous anger. It was bad enough to be interrupted in such a beautiful moment, but the Spirit's bald faced disgust just added insult to injury.

"Yeah, so?"

"So!" The Spirit threw up his hands, shaking his spear. "That's disgusting! How dare you break into this sacred place and... and defile it with your...." he grimaced. "Bodily functions."

Korra deadpanned. She'd dealt with a lot of judgement from Spirits, but this was too far for even her temper. "Who says we defiled anything? Is there some rule that humans can't make love in the Spirit World?"

The Spirit recoiled at the topic. "Well... it's… it’s never been fully discussed!" It decided.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Before now Humans couldn't even come into the Spirit World and since Spirits don't _actually_ make love I kinda doubt it has ever really come up."

"Well, paying respects to a holy site should be rather obvious!" The Spirit continued in growing frustration.

"You know," Asami joined in. "Making love isn't just a bodily function, it's a physical expression of love, and the poet Giru Mon Chu said that Love is the great language of the Spirit World." Korra forced herself to not take her annoyed stare from the Spirit, even as she felt her attention shift to the woman beside her. Whereas she was angry, Asami was almost academic in her argument. "So, if you think about it, since humans are the only ones who can make love it's more like we're honoring the sacred pool by being together here." She pointed skyward again. "And it's not like they seem to really mind."

The Spirit followed her gesture, its wide-set eyes expressing just how hard it was trying to find a suitable argument and yet failing. Finally, it threw its hands in the air once more. "Fine! I'll speak to the Great Spirits myself and then we'll see who’s defiling what!" And it turned to waddle away back into the pool.

Korra watched the ripples fade and then turned to her girlfriend, an impressed smile spreading across her cheeks.

"I'm starting to think we're wearing out our welcome here," she suggested and brushed a kiss to Asami's shoulder. The heiress tutted.

"Probably, but you did say that we all have to live in harmony now. I think we're making great strides, personally."

Korra chuckled and pulled Asami back into the moss with her, wrapping Asami’s arms over her chest and the other obliged with tucking her head onto the Avatar's shoulder, sighing with deep satisfaction.

 

  
\---------------  
  


 

The President's door clicked closed and the fresh air of the hall outside of his office soothed Korra's tension, if only by a fraction. Being in close quarters with Raiko, even as allies, always managed to strain her good temper.

"I think that was our shortest meeting yet," Asami commented dryly and the Avatar grunted back as they turned in unison down the hall.

"Yeah, and I almost didn't have to shake him that time," she agreed in a coarse tone. Her girlfriend smirked and nudged her with a playful motion. Ahead of them another doorway opened and a clerk appeared from what looked to be a supply closet. A light snapped off, casting the corner in darkness and the clerk turned towards another doorway without so much as a glance in their direction.

An idea, wicked and lewd, appeared abruptly in Asami's mind and the engineer fluidly slipped her hand through Korra's elbow, pulling her into the direction of the closet.

"Wha-" Korra managed to mutter in confusion before Asami had her pressed to the closet door in a hallway which was very nearly deserted.

"Do you know what would really stick it to Raiko?" Asami murmured in a voice laced with heady poison.

Korra's brow lifted and blue eyes searched Asami's in growing disbelief.

"You're not serious..." she whispered.

"C'mon," Asami smirked back, straightening to look down at her partner. She cocked her head coyly to the side. "You know it'd be fun."

Korra seemed to debate the possibility for approximately the handful of seconds which it took for Asami's rapidly firing lust to lose all patience. It took no more than a hand on Korra's shoulder and an open door and they were in the darkness of the closet together, surrounded on three sides by file folios, pens and papers.

"This is such a bad idea," Korra groaned even as her hands crept up to wrap behind Asami's neck.

Despite the darkness of the closet, Asami's mouth knew the way to Korra's and when she found her lips her kiss was a steadily building burn against the Avatar's flesh. Korra sighed with want, intensifying what Asami felt building inside of her while hands traced folds of cloth in search of those fastenings which kept two bodies separated.

"Probably," she agreed, not caring one whit just how tacky it was to make love in a secretary's closet outside of the Republic President's office. The thought of Korra, panting and wet, was enough to drive any semblance of fear from Asami's mind and then even so... the threat of getting caught was simply an extra dash of danger to their lovemaking. Asami was partially addicted to danger, after all. "But we can worry about that later."

 

\--------------  
  


 

A pair of legs protruded from beneath the fabricated collection of steel plates, pistons, pumps and valves but there was no sign of the rest of the body beneath the mess, aside from a steady clink of tool-on-metal. Recognizing the oil-stained boots, Korra grinned as she settled more softly onto the pads of her feet.

Asami was practically buried beneath the engine block of some new machine and in the steady drone of the Future Industries garage her senses were deaf to the world. Not wanting to spoil her approach, however, Korra crept around the front angle of the machine until she was just at the edge of the raised engine block so that she could look down through the gaps of tubing at the beauty laying underneath it all, diligently rotating her wrench in just the correct place.

Asami saw Korra appear above the tangle of machinery above her and her features opened up in a expression of soft surprise, her mouth slightly open with exertion and her white top begrimed in oil. Korra felt oddly taken off-guard: she had planned on surprising Asami but when the engineer looked up at her from the concrete below, it was Korra that felt vaguely stunned. Even filthy and distracted, Asami was gorgeous. Was she possibly prettier today than other afternoons? Or had Korra somehow forgotten those intelligent jade eyes in the forty-eight hours she'd been away?

A single smudge of oil fell from the block and landed with a quiet plop on Asami's cheek. As if broken from a spell, both Avatar and Asami blinked and smiled, staring at one another from either side of the engine. 


	2. 175 AG

  
Asami rolled over for the upteenth time, trying to pull herself into the smallest possible ball inside the blankets and furs of the Palace guest bed. Harbor City and Korra's parents were the utmost in accommodating but the South Pole winter was certainly not, and she had no idea how she'd ever fall asleep in the permeating cold.

A soft knock on the bedroom door pulled her nose and eyes from the covers. "Korra?"

"Yeah," and without waiting to be invited, the door opened by an inch. "You awake?"

"Only forever," Asami grimaced and waved Korra into the room. "It's so cold."

Korra, dressed in pajamas and a robe, slid into the bed. They had been assigned separate rooms for their visit with the Avatar's parents and Asami had had full intentions of following the wishes of her hosts, but if Korra wanted to sneak around behind her parents' back, she certainly wasn't going to stop or argue with her... especially considering how much better her sleep was when her Water Tribe girl was nearby.

"City girl," Korra teased as she moved towards her and at once Asami leaned closer for warmth, not peeking from her blankets.

"Could you breathe fire, or something?" She pleaded pathetically. The temperature and lack of sleep was wearing quickly on Asami's usual poise.

"That won't do any good," Korra responded, logically, and arranged herself beside Asami. "You need to learn how to actually keep warm. Look, lay in a line, not a ball," she instructed and used coarse hands to adjust Asami's posture. “You want to keep your feet on the hot-pad.”

“What hot-pad?”

“The one…” she looked at the fireplace where a clay tile was toasting in front of the iron grate. “You didn't even put your hot pad in the bed?”

Asami pouted and began to rub her arms through her pajamas, shivering, and Korra tutted at her.

"No wonder you're so cold."

"No one said anything about hot-pads!"

She laughed and shook her head, then took Asami's hand. "Here," she offered and without explanation she put the tips of Asami's fingers in between her own lips. Asami lifted an eyebrow at the gesture, which was not only warming but painfully erotic. After only a moment however, Korra removed Asami's hand and pushed it down the line of her body to clasp between her thighs.

"Korra!" Asami hissed. They had agreed before they left the ship to behave themselves while they were under Tonraq and Senna's roof, and this was not adhering to those carefully defined rules. Korra surprised Asami however by rolling her eyes.

"In between your legs is the warmest part of your body. Put your hands here to keep them warm while you sleep," she explained patiently, and Asami felt her blush worsen. Quite possibly the only thing worse than chastising her girlfriend over an advance was misconstruing that advance.

"Oh... I didn't know that."

"No kidding," she smarted back and climbed further up Asami's body, layering her own over the other woman's and pulling the blankets up high over them to guard from the cold.

The amorphous contour of their bodies beneath the blanket adjusted and stilled as Korra closed her eyes, glad for the added warmth of Asami's body beneath hers.

Approximately one minute passed before Asami's voice broke the quiet of the bedroom. "Well, now I'm just turned on."

Korra chuckled into her girlfriend's shoulder.

 

\----------------  
  


 

The office door slammed open, making Korra jump slightly out of her meditations from where she sat on Asami's couch. She looked up at the woman who stalked into the room with the weighted steps of a jungle cat, her temper as dangerous as the predator which she called to mind.

"This is the last time, Iknik Varrick," she fumed under her breath before she seemed to realize she was not alone and startled, dropping the briefcase which she'd been carrying. "You're back!" She smiled, all traces of her former anger apparently vanished, and rushed to Korra. The Avatar hopped to her feet quickly and took the other woman into her arms at once, grinning into Asami's black hair.

"You knew I would be," she quipped and squeezed Asami all the tighter.

"I know," she kissed her temple, and then down her cheek in small, enthused touches. "I'm just glad to see you."

"I'm glad to see you too," Korra smiled under the affection, and then made to nip a kiss at Asami's chin. "I really missed you."

"Is that so?" Asami took Korra's mouth with her own, an easy and loving gesture which lasted perhaps a moment too long. Korra was starting to feel warm.

"Mhm," she hummed back, deepening the kiss. "In a lot of ways."

Asami's hands were falling somewhere around her lower back but she didn't really notice them until she felt an added pressure of thumbs digging into her hips. There was a sound of escaped air when Asami pulled from their kiss, her cheeks blushing and bright.

"Such as?"

She placed her lips under Korra's jaw, and the Avatar was suddenly having a hard time remembering what they were flirting about.

"Like... um, I missed your... smell?"

Asami chuckled and then brought their hips together in a sudden, violent tug. Korra had to bite back a moan as want rushed through her.

"What else?"

How quickly Korra had become putty under Asami's purposeful hands. Her strength and bravado was nothing compared to the liquid weight of Asami's sexuality when she chose to flip it on, and with having been in her arms for all of five minutes, Korra was falling easily under the other woman's spell.

"Your lips," she tried, knowing there was a right answer somewhere. As if in response, Asami put those lips back against Korra's, pushing deeper while her hands worked down the curve of Korra's bottom. Weren't they in an office, Korra wondered distantly. What if they were found like this, all but grinding against one another in the middle of the room?

Asami's hands ran back upwards, under Korra's tunic, and she realized very suddenly that this was not going to stop at simple 'necking'.

"Asami," she breathed while the other woman started to tug off Korra's top. "We're going to be seen if we keep doing stuff like this."

"By who? It's after hours; everyone is heading home for the day," she pointed out, tossing aside Korra's shirt to lean down and push a burning kiss through the cloth of Korra's bra. Korra shivered, imagining Asami using her tongue, and felt her defense waver. It was just as Asami's fingers were tugging at the belt of Korra's trousers that the Avatar finally released a frustrated growl and grabbed her girlfriend's shoulders.

Asami's jade eyes widened, and then Korra shoved her backwards until she was pinned against the wall behind her, perhaps a little too roughly. Korra was about to apologize when Asami's mouth was on hers again, fiercer than ever, and Korra decided she wasn't being rough enough, yet.

"I missed your body," Korra whispered and pressed her lips down the line of Asami's collar, while the other woman writhed with fresh excitement. Korra's hands swept down Asami's contour, looking for buttons and finding zippers instead. Small miracles.

She sunk quite suddenly to her knees and Asami put the heel of her hand to her mouth to quiet herself.

"Korra," she whimpered while the Avatar started to jerk down the fabric of her skirt and panties until she could press her face into the soft down of Asami's mound. Asami shifted slightly, allowing her undergarments to fall around her ankles, and Korra was struck by the sexiness of her girlfriend in heels, garters, and sheer-black stockings. It was almost as appealing as Asami entirely nude.

She turned her eyes up at the other woman's, seeing that clear pang of want glimmering in her eyes, and then put her mouth to Asami's lips.

 

  
\-------------------  
  


 

Korra blew on the cup between her fingers, letting the steam waft off the tea in barely perceptible curls and fill her senses with sharp jasmine.

"So, whose wedding is this again?" She clarified. Asami, seated across from her at the tearoom table and reading through a stack of envelopes, cleared her throat.

"Juju Tong," she answered distantly. "We went to private school together. Her family owns an electrical company."

"She sounds more like a client than a close friend..." Korra pointed out warily but Asami only shrugged.

"Girls from school get married, and I go to their weddings. It's just how that one works, Sweetheart."

The Avatar sighed audibly. She hadn't been in town for a week and as soon as she was back in Republic City, Asami was dragging her to a wedding in the Earthen States for a woman she'd never even met. However, whether or not she knew Juju Tong, Korra certainly knew Asami and that meant she had to accept the fact she'd be making the journey one way or another.

"Do I have to wear a dre-"

"I already ordered you something," Asami remarked smartly as she picked up her cutlery, winning another exaggerated eye roll from her girlfriend.

Korra studied the other woman as the young Titan-of-Industry worked casually over her meal, and found her gaze drifting to the choker-necklace hanging just at the valley of Asami's throat. A dark wide-toothed gear was blown into the glass medallion, a symbol not of Asami's work but rather her ever-revolving mind. To Korra, the necklace was more than a signifier of the tie between the two women: it was a monogram of the woman she loved... but for some reason their conversation led her mind along a different route as she studied the necklace which she herself had given to her a little more than a year ago.

"Do you think we'll ever get married?" She asked, abruptly, and Asami's jade eyes flicked up at hers.

Asami was uncharacteristically quiet for an uncharacteristically long moment. The knife and fork she'd been eating with were placed neatly on the edges of her plate and she lifted a napkin to dab at her lips before she took a draw from her water glass. Only then did her lips part into a response.

"Is that what you want?"

"Yeah," Korra shrugged automatically, and then felt her face grow suddenly warm. She stuttered a moment, gesturing at Asami's necklace. "I mean, I know I never officially proposed but... I mean I guess I kind of thought..."

Asami was watching her in that way which made it difficult to articulate any clear semblance of thought, and Korra found her words trailing, frustratingly. She huffed.

"I guess I thought that too," Asami answered after another painful moment and Korra felt her chest relaxing. "But, not right now."

"Oh."

Asami sighed and tilted her head, fingers reaching across the table for Korra's hand. "I just think I'm a little... young for it."

"You're older than me."

"Yeah, which means you're way too young."

Korra's frown was swift and petulant, making Asami grin. "I didn't mean tomorrow. I just mean, I love you, and I think we should be together."

Her grin softened as she gazed across the table at her, adoring Korra's typical bluntness even at topics such as romance and proposals of marriage. She wet her lips. "I think so too. I guess getting married right now just feels kind of soon. And honestly, I don't even know how we'd go about it. I've never heard of two women getting married."

Korra scoffed, as if technicalities were the least of her concerns. "Tenzin would do it."

"Okay, and then what?"

"Well, we'd have a honeymoon..."

"Then?"

Korra scoffed again. "Then we'd go home and have a life."

Asami actually smiled again. "I like that part." She brought her hands back to her lap and looked around them towards the bay, which glittered through the tearoom windows in the very near distance. "I think I have an idea for a compromise," she said after a moment. "It's kind of... different, though."

Korra's interest was clearly lit and she cocked an eyebrow at the other woman. "Yeah? Let's hear it."

"What if we skipped that first half and went straight to the home part?"

Korra's confusion was apparent in the twist of her lips. "What?"

"I'm saying, what if you moved in with me. Now."


	3. 176 AG

Korra shuffled to the front door of the penthouse suite at the top of Future Industries tower, sweaty and strumming with early morning energy after her dawn workout. As usual when she was home, she grabbed the morning paper which was left outside of the elevator lobby on the top floor (just as Miss Sato preferred it) before heading inside the apartment and then smiled at the robed figure seated at the breakfast nook, enjoying toast and tea.

"Extra, extra," Korra quipped and dropped the paper on the table next to Asami's plate and landed a swift, sweaty kiss to the engineer's forehead.

"Oh, table service," Asami smirked at her and reached to unfold the collection of papers while Korra drifted into the kitchen in search of water. She flipped open the fold, and a black-and-white image of her girlfriend surprised her at the bottom left of the headline. "You're on the front page again," she commented, scanning over the brief article.

Korra reappeared behind her to peer at the image and then groaned, reaching for the paper. "Every time..." she muttered, frowning. The picture was of her standing with several police officers off Pon Ave in downtown at the site of a Triad robbery. The Avatar in the image was stiff and vaguely surprised, staring at the camera as if she weren't entirely sure what to make of it, and Korra dropped the paper back into Asami's lap with another sigh. "I take the worst photos."

Asami grinned and twisted to follow Korra with her eyes. "Aw, Sweetheart..." it was hard to argue, since Korra traditionally looked awkward or confused in every photograph, but as her girlfriend, it was only proper that Asami make some attempt to dispute. "You just have bad luck with photographers."

"I have bad luck, period," she complained over her shoulder on her way towards their bedroom. "Promise me you won't save that one?"

"Sure," Asami lied easily. She looked back at the picture and a fond smile crossed her lips as she examined the expression of bewilderment on the still image of Korra. Of course, she kept all of the Avatar's newspapers clippings.

 

\-----------

 

Asami noticed the photographers approaching just as they exited the theater, and her initial reaction was to groan with annoyance. Fortunately, the heiress was too well-bred for an outward show of her anger even if her girlfriend wasn't.

"Oh come on, can't we go to a play in peace?" Korra began to rant in an undertone, but as one reporter lifted his shoebox of a camera, a thought occurred suddenly to Asami.

"Hey," she whispered in a low voice, just at Korra's ear, and the Avatar's gaze swiveled around at once to hers. "Do you know how beautiful you are tonight?"

Korra's features opened up in surprise and immediate shyness, which was just the moment Asami wanted to lean and kiss her under her lip. The Water Tribe woman chuckled at the open affection, which they so rarely shared in public, and played at pushing Asami away from her which was approximately when Asami's pupils were seared by the metallic popping of a camera flash bulb.

......

"Oh, this one is my favorite," Asami grinned proudly, using her fingertips to flatten the creases of the newspaper clipping. On the page was the Avatar, dressed for a night out with a carefree grin plastered to her glowing face. Asami had been cropped from the image as best as possible, since their same-gender romance was something of a taboo in Republic City (even though it was quite public). The tagline read 'New Kuster Beaton Play Good Enough for the Avatar, Some Critics Disagree'.

Korra tilted her head, looking at the image, and then smirked. "Yeah, that one's not so bad."

"You look adorable," Asami insisted and then, inspired, leaned to kiss her actual adorable girlfriend on the cheek. Korra's grin just grew. "I told you."

"Yeah, well you're right. Sometimes."

 

\-----------  
  


 

The bedroom was painted with shades of blue shadow in the late hour, but Korra could still make out the silhouette of Asami's body reposed atop the coverlet: the city lights were dim at this high floor of the building and gave nothing but a subtle glow at the edges of the curtains to guide by but she knew their boudoir even when half-conscious. She shifted into the room on the balls of her bare feet, sleepy and aching from her night on the couch, and saw that her lover had curled into her usual spot out of habit to leave just enough space beside her.

She pulled back the coverlet to slide in beside her partner and, almost aggressively, put her arm around Asami to tug her close.

"Don't be mad," she whispered in her ear, tongue heavy with sleep.

There was silence, then a soft sigh. "I'm not mad," Asami whispered back.

"Yes you are."

"Okay." She relented. "I'll be mad in the morning."

"Okay." Eyes closed, she kissed Asami's shoulder and tucked her nose into the black silk of her hair, falling easily back into winding dreams. 


	4. 177 AG

Asami Sato was a woman of overflowing creativity, but that did not mean that all of her ideas were little morsels of genius, Korra decided. For instance, this idea wherein Korra had her wrists tied to the headrest by silk garters was one of her girlfriend's sillier notions, and for the tenth time Korra rolled her eyes from where she lay strapped to their bed among the pillows.

"Happy?" She asked with audible sarcasm, knowing the answer. Asami was standing at the end of the bed in nothing but her red lace underwear, reviewing Korra with her fingertips poised beneath her chin and her lovely mouth quirked in amusement. If it weren't for the fact that Korra felt vaguely demeaned she would have been turned on at the sight.

"Absolutely," she answered. "Can you untie yourself?"

Korra looked up at her right hand and attempted, but the knots held in place. Despite the quality of the ties, the restraints were still just an illusion, and they both knew it: a flame from Korra's hand would see her freed in moments, but that wasn’t allowed. For the time being, she was playing the part of innocent nonbender, entirely at her girlfriend's whim. A shoddy excuse for Asami's birthday present, perhaps, but the heiress didn’t seem to mind.

She looked back at Asami and shrugged. "Guess not."

"Good," she began to shift forward onto the bed and at once Korra felt her breath hitch as her focus narrowed onto the image crawling beautifully above her body, not quite making contact. Her fingers jerked to reach out and caress the soft skin so close to her naked, excited body but the ties held tight and she was denied. Restricted. Made to wait in indignation. Asami seemed to take note of her restlessness and tapped the tip of Korra's nose, playfully, before leaning down to land a deep kiss suited to steal her breath away. "Hot, or cold?"

Korra smirked at the game. The right answer would have gotten her out of the ties at once, but she wasn't in any discomfort and it was never in her nature to not take a game seriously. "Hot," she answered, honestly.

Another kiss lowered to her chest this time, but when Korra's instinct to hold her was again silenced by the ties Korra began to notice an unexpected squirming somewhere within her mid-frame. Her eyes shocked open to stare at the ceiling, trying to pinpoint the source of this sweet angst but then Asami took her nipple between her lips and Korra's voice stole forcefully out of her chest.

"Hot?" She simmered, and Korra realized that her breaths were coming in soft pants.

"Hot..." she answered, eyes drifting closed again to avoid looking at her lover. When those lips landed on her again, she squirmed with frustration, and it positively burned her pride to hear Asami's little chuckle.

"What's wrong, Sweetheart?" She lapped her tongue up the valley of Korra's chest and the Water Tribe woman pressed her lips to keep still.

"N-nothing."

Though, it wasn’t nothing. Rather, it was as if the loss of her mobility had put a strange tension in Korra's nerves. Every motion by Asami was amplified up Korra's spine into her brain, sparkling her senses in new and electrifying ways. She could do nothing as Asami traversed her, working her way down her muscled body with those teasing bites and wet tongue strokes: nothing but endure this pleasure she could never have expected. She wasn’t sure if Asami was being leisurely on purpose or if the act of being bound was somehow extending the time it usually took to work from lips to lips but it seemed an agonizing wait before Asami finally settled between her legs, kissing at her inner thighs with that same sly smile which twisted Korra's heartstrings to tatters. Slowly then, she leaned in to really kiss her and Korra positively hissed with the sensation of it.

Asami shot her a look before leaning in for more, but Korra's body was reeling. She was made defenseless underneath Asami, and in so many more ways than from a few pieces of cloth. She was utterly subject to the smallest request, the faintest smile, even the trace of her perfume. There seemed nothing she wouldn’t do for the woman who was lapping so cruelly between her legs and, in the heat of her pleasure, these thoughts flashed by so quickly that she failed to notice how her legs strained together in some attempt to pause the intensity of Asami's tongue.

"What are you doing?" Asami laughed and pushed at Korra's thighs. "Why are your closing your legs?"

Korra swallowed, trying to relax and allow the brunette to kiss her again. "Sorry."

She flashed her another look before resuming and Korra's hips jolted back as soon as she felt that exquisite touch against her folds. "Wow," Asami arched a brow at her. "You're really wound up."

"Y-yeah," she answered, bashful. She couldn’t explain what was happening or why, but it felt as if after years of making love together, Asami's touches had become somehow fresh again... as if Korra were still a nervous young woman in a ship's cabin.

Asami became thoughtful and kissed her inner thigh, making Korra press down another moan. "Still hot?" She checked, her voice husky. Korra nodded, fervently, and Asami began to adjust. She sat up on her knees and lifted Korra's leg against her chest, holding her there so close that their hips pressed together. Korra forced herself to open her eyes and watch how Asami's mouth drew slow presses up her knee while her fingers fluttered lightly between her lips again. The ties strained under the Avatar's fists.

"Too hot," she uttered between her teeth.

Asami nipped under her knee and gently dipped her fingers inside, winning a low peal from Korra. "Are you sure?"

Korra didn’t answer, but she did lift her hips against Asami with clear need. The heiress played at her, kissing up and down her leg in time with her fingers but just as Korra's body began to roll towards her climax, Asami withdrew.

"W-what?" Korra tried to lean up out of a daze, aghast at being robbed of something so precious, but the other woman was just smiling at her.

"You have to wait."

"What!?" Korra's frustration was a new, palpable force to replace the tense pleasure she'd been enduring. She jerked at the ties. "You know I can burn these apart, right?"

Asami slid from her, coming to stand at the edge of the bed again. "You do that and we're finished here," she warned, and Korra could tell that she meant it. "No bending. That was the deal."

Korra stared her down for another half minute before flinging herself back against the pillows with a ferocious 'ugh'. It was true that over years of meditation and study she'd learned the nuances of patience and mediation, but _this_ sort of restraint was beyond her ken.

"Okay," she took a calming breath. "Now what?"

In response, Asami dipped down and out of her panties, then climbed carefully back on top of Korra, facing her feet. She could feel her weight pressed around her stomach and see the lovely falls of black curls down Asami's fair shoulders but all of her was simply out of reach. As if that fact weren't cruel enough, Asami began to gently toy her fingertips against her sex again. Korra tilted her chin back towards the ceiling.

"Asami, this is torture," she whined even as she fettered into the caress.

The heiress made a (no doubt) purposeful flip of her hair and leaned forward, allowing Korra a view of her bottom and the Avatar positively groaned as her center tightened all over again. She wanted Asami, wanted to hear her loud, high calls and feel those nails grasping into her back but she was stuck, helplessly tied to the bed with nothing but a view and a brimming orgasm that was just at the edges of her conscious. Her body clenched and spasmed to be so close, guided by Asami's fingers but no sooner had she groaned her intention then Asami quit all over again.

"N-no," she pined, pathetic and frustrated while her lover lifted off of her once more. Languidly, she laid her body back on top of Korra and, smiling, kissed her chin.

"Not yet," she murmured.

"Why are you doing this to me?" She asked, eyes closed tight as Asami reached and gently cupped her breast.

"I don’t know," she answered softly. "Maybe I just like the idea that you can’t go anywhere." Her fingers pinched Korra's dark nipple and the Avatar groaned with pleasure. "I like it when you're all mine."

"I'm always yours," she responded past the haze of lust. She didn’t see how the comment shifted Asami's expression from malevolent delight to genuine, full adoration. She brushed another kiss to Korra's chin.

"Stay right here," she ordered and then she was gone again, rummaging through her drawers. Korra attempted to not point out that there was hardly anywhere else she _could_ have gone, and instead she pressed her thighs tight in a vain attempt to soothe the ache between. When Asami returned to the bed, she was wearing the ‘stupid toy’ but her sense of play was gone. She settled between Korra's legs with clear direction and Korra was strangely surprised by the vehement way Asami kissed her mouth and cradled her hand beneath her hair, locking them together.

Korra was excited. She wanted this now; needed, almost desperately, to give in to the woman on top of her. She wanted to submit to her her anxieties, her aches and her fragile wants. The restraints ceased to strain against her - rather, they were keeping her safe: grounded and tied to Asami as she melded into her so hotly. Completely under Asami's guidance, Korra gave in and let their hips meet with loud gasps and allowed herself to enjoy the the freedom of her helplessness. Asami continued to hold her as they made love, and when Korra neared her close a third time, she begged sweetly. The heiress kissed her and thrust harder, giving Korra all she could need to cry out against her lips.

Worn and weary, she fell back into the pillows with an audible draw of air.

"Don't get comfortable," Asami warned with a tug of Korra's bottom lip. "We're not done yet."

Korra just closed her eyes and nodded. What else could she do? She was Asami's, after all. Always.

 

\------------  
  


Union Day was Republic City's most popular state holiday, and the city had pulled out all the stops for the occasion that year as it was the first time the council had approved the city festival since Kuvira's March. The entire harbor had been filled with vendors from around the Republic and even further, with brightly-lit kiosks offering colorful games or fried delicacies, and small stages were erected for various performers. People and Spirits both meandered through the closed city streets by the droves, though the later was prohibited from the games since Spirits did not really understand the concept of 'fair play'. A ProBending tournament had even been made free to the public and the Arena was packed beyond capacity, which was why Korra had decided to forego watching the competition. Besides the crowd, it really wasn't as much fun to spectate as it had been to compete and she had a strange wistfulness for the days of the Fire Ferrets.

In lieu of the ProBending matches, she and Bolin took to the food walk and stumbled upon a particularly aromatic dumpling stand which served a house speciality punch with thistle-spice: just the sort of warmth one could appreciate on a late autumn night. Despite the fact that Asami had to work late, Korra was having a remarkably good time with her friend and she felt surprised when the heiress tapped her on the shoulder, Mako and Opal at her side.

"Asami!" She exclaimed and reached up to put her hands on the engineer's shoulders. "You're here!"

Asami quirked a brow back at her. "Uh, yeah. Sorry we're so late... this side of town is kind of a madhouse right now."

"Pshaw," Korra snorted. "You're here _now_ and that's what matters. Let’s play some stuff!" She grinned.  
  
The line between her brows deepened as she scanned Korra's bright cheeks and lopsided smile. "Are you drunk?"

"What?" Korra looked around, bewildered. "No. I don't drink. You know I don't drink."

The heiress glanced from the half-finished mug of pink punch to Bolin, who had his fist around an even larger mug. "What is that?"

The Earthbender looked curiously at his cup. "Um, Union Day Punch?"

Exasperation growing, she turned to the dumpling vendor while Korra piggybacked off Bolin's assertion that it 'really was only punch'. "Excuse me, what exactly is in the punch?"

A knobby-handed man looked up from his pots. "It's a family recipe, ma'am. Cant be given away secrets like that but it's got some white fruit, some cupperberries, some honey syrup and of course the thistle spice. Oh, and the saké."

Asami looked from the chef back to her girlfriend, who was staring at her glass of punch as if it had betrayed her horribly. "Oh." She took another sip.

"Korra," Asami rolled her eyes. "How many of these have you had?"

"Um," she peered at Bolin for help. "How long have we been sitting here?"

The Earthbender had a fist under his chin in deep thought. "At least four orders of dumplings... and we got a refill each time."

The heiress let go a soft sigh. "Well that's not so bad. If you can't even taste the saké, it's probably not very strong."

"Are you mad?" Korra looked up, wide blue eyes begging for validation.

"Why would I be mad?" She chuckled and reached for her hand, giving her assurance with the gesture.

"Well, I'm mad," Opal stated flatly and strode forward to take Bolin's mug. "We agreed no drinking until I got here." She turned the mug up and finished in one impressive pull while Bolin squealed with appall at having his drink hijacked.

"So, time to play some games?" Korra swung to her feet and then immediately began to tilt to the left, surprising Asami who had to lunge to steady her. "Whoops."

"Oh Spirits," the heiress grimaced, holding to her while Korra attempted to find her balance. "That may have actually been more saké than I realized."  
“That, or Korra’s a lightweight,” Mako suggested.

"This iz... weird..." Korra held her girlfriend's arm and then turned a brimming smile on her. "Drinking is better than I thought it would be."

"You say that now," Mako grumbled. "Wait till tomorrow morning."

......

"I think I'm gonna... gonna be sick," Korra was leaned fists-over-knees behind a sharpshooting booth and glowering at her boots while Asami rubbed her back.

"That's okay," Asami promised gently and continued to make wide circles against Korra's tunic. The night had been going well up until a few minutes ago, despite Korra's inebriated dash between booths and loud jeering at other competitors, but Asami was well aware of the laws of physics as well as the laws of sugar-laced alcohol and what goes up simply must come down. Or, what went down will inevitably come back up, if her private school experience was any indication.

Somehow, Korra managed to keep her stomach and slowly eased back upright, though not without Asami's help.

"You okay?" She asked and Korra nodded, leaning her bronze cheek on the engineer's shoulder. Asami was unable to resist the pathetic pout on Korra's chin, and she tucked her arm around her with a rare sense of protectiveness as she lead them back into the festival. It was so unusual for Korra to need anyone's physical strength, but it felt strangely gratifying that she could rely on Asami for it. "Let's get you some popcorn. The salt might help your stomach."

"M'kay," Korra nodded along. "You're so smart."

The heiress smiled despite herself, walking them to rejoin the rest of their group. "Thanks. I got my formalized education in drinking at boarding school."

"Oh, me and Mako got ours with the Triads," Bolin waved a thumb between him and his stone-sober older brother. Opal was a bit pink and hanging on Bolin's arm with enough affection that they actually stole some attention away from Asami and Korra: a rare blessing.

"Of course the Triads would be handing out booze to kids..." Asami noted with a drawling sarcasm.

"Triads'r jerks," Korra chimed in while Asami pulled her toward a popcorn vendor. "And what's the big idea with this sting-operation n'way, Mako?" She turned an accusatory finger on the officer, who appeared stunned at her questioning. "Beifong told me there's some kinda conspiracy to 'trace narcotics s'ppliers' but doesn't she get that letting them stick around just prop-propa... continues the problem on the street? It's been hard 'nough rebuilding the city infrashtructure without police resources going to Triad busts. Especially when the police already know all about their operations." She pointed to herself. "Y'know, I can't be here all the time to help you with street-level gangs. The Avatar's got more to w'rry about than just Republic City."

A bag of popcorn appeared in her hand and she dug in without a thought, staring at Mako for his response, which he hemmed on in naked confusion.

"Well.. that's police business, Korra."

She shook her head. "I don't think so." She stuffed another handful of popcorn into her mouth. "If the Avatar has to be involved then I have a right to all pertinent information and just because Beifong is chief doesn't mean she always knows what's right. This crime rate creates a lasting inshtability in the city which is only going to be harder to combat the longer it's allowed to continue. Triads recruit children, which grow up to be Triads who recruit children." She waved at the brothers as they walked. "Cept you two. Not to mention that there'r whole blocks of business owners who can't rely on the police for safety so they're turning to the same structure which creates the problem in the first place.... just to protect themselves. Encouraging the citizens of Republic City to not trust in the police leads back to more general inshtability. I..." she blinked. "I need to say all this to Lin. Iz she here?" She started to cast her gaze around for the chief, as if expecting her to materialize out of the popcorn stand but all of her friends were simply staring at Korra, amazed and quiet.

"Korra..." Bolin beamed. "You're like, the most articulate drunk I've ever met."

She looked back at him, scoffed with obvious pride at such a compliment, and then heaved over double to be sick.

 

\----------

 

Asami drove, since Asami always drove, and Opal and the boys had graciously agreed to scrunch up together in the backseat so that Korra could spread out in the front, using Asami's lap for a pillow. They left the top down and the cool night air was refreshing, soothing away the nauseous heat Korra could still feel churning in her stomach. Despite Korra's ill-fated evening, the rest were still enjoying their night out and talked cheerfully about the most recent local news until Asami pulled up in front of Mako's apartment on the corner of 23rd and North.

The trio began to pile out and Opal reached into the front seat to pat Korra's head. "Feel better, drunky drunk."

"Goodnight guys," Asami smirked at them as she put the car back into drive, heading in the direction of the Future Industries tower.

"Where are we goin’?" Korra asked from her lap. Asami did not take her eyes from the road when she responded.

"Home."

"Good." She snuggled in deeper. "Thanks."

"What for?" She asked, coasting through a green light.

"I don't know, for being so awesome all the time I guess." She opened blue eyes to gaze up at her. "You're the most awesome person I know, you know? You're probably the best person I've ever met, which iz incredible because I get to go home with you. If we were on ProBending teams, I'd be on your team every time even though you're not a bender." She smiled, goofily, and closed her eyes again. "I'd pick Team Asami every time."

Korra did not see how Asami watched the road with a smile that slipped daintily from ear to ear, or how she shook her head with a gentle, happy sigh.

"I don't think you're going to remember this tomorrow, but after you feel better and get over your hangover we're going to be having a lot of sex. All afternoon. And it'll be mostly because of this conversation."

"Great..." Korra mumbled and drifted off.

 


	5. 178 AG

  
Asami's arms were tucked around Korra's waist, her dark perfumed hair flung in perfect ringlets across her lap where the heiress dozed genteelly.

"Is she okay?" Mako asked, nonplussed, approaching the lounge where the two women were taking a break from the dancing. He was dressed in a fine-fitted tux, the tie long missing, and drinking from a Water Tribe firemilk jug. Unlike half of their guests, Mako had managed to keep the majority of his wits and Korra was grateful for that; it was nice to have someone at the party who wasn’t three-sheets to the arctic wind.

"Yeah," she responded and stroked lovingly through her bride's hair. "I think she's just having a little too much fun."

"I'm tipsy," Asami explained with a slur, not even opening her eyes. Korra grinned down at her and continued to pet her.

"You are drunk," she corrected.

Mako smirked at the pair. "Everyone's a little drunk," he pointed out and gestured at the hall full of dancing, slumping, laughing pairs. The wedding reception was still in swing despite the late hour and had little sign of slowing down. "But I kind of expected better from the bride."

"Aw," Korra shrugged nonchalantly. "Leave her alone, she never has fun like this." Which was quite true. Korra wasn't sure that she had ever seen Asami relax and let loose quite as much as she had that night, and it had been her delight to watch the other woman's more playful side bloom until exhaustion finally put her on the sidelines of the party.

"Did everyone have a good time?" Asami asked in a voice which was laced with sleepiness.

"Yeah, I think so," Korra promised. "And I think we've had just about too much of a good time. Let's put you to bed."

"...Okay." Asami made no move and Mako and Korra shared a silent laugh at her expense. The firebender put down his drink to help lift Asami off Korra, and together they moved to prop her between them.

"Guess your wedding night is kind of spoiled," Mako teased as he helped the two women out of the Palace dance hall and towards the lift which would take them to their suite on the fifth floor.

Tradition held that they spend their first night as a married couple in a hut which their families would build for them, but those traditions were fading and Korra felt that while they were already breaking the rules they could stand to break a few more. It wasn't tradition, after all, for the Chief himself to overrule a long-standing statute that a wedding ceremony be held between a man and a woman nor was it tradition that the bride (or brides) arrive at the altar on the back of a festooned Polarbear Dog but the Avatar had become somewhat infamous for breaking traditions. She _had_ held to a particular few, however. She and Asami had hosted their ceremony in the frozen ice, among friends and family. They had worn the white fur mantles that were customary as well, though Asami had foregone the Water Tribe robes in favor of a more fashionable Esquan gown, (which Korra had approved of mightily). They had even accepted the gift of a hand-carved sleigh bed for their apartment in Republic City, which would clash with Asami's modern aesthetic but was the traditional bed of a married Tribal couple. Asami claimed to not mind the Southern style and insisted she would just have the bedroom remodeled to complement the addition.

In general, the two women had encouraged many changes but the heart of the ceremony remained true: they'd made vows to love and cherish one another for the rest of their natural lives and Korra felt honored to be able to do just that.

She looked up at Mako's comment, an amused eyebrow lifted for emphasis. "Spoiled? Are you kidding? I'm home, I'm with my friends, my family, and I'm married to Asami. This is all I wanted in a wedding night."

Mako gave his typical dry laugh. "Good."

They waited for a few moments at the elevator, watching the dial flicker from the upper floors to theirs.

"Will you do me a favor and tell my folks I said goodnight?" She asked, looking over at her groomsman. He nodded.

"Sure, if I can find them. I think your dad got roped into some kind of snowball fight?"

Korra blinked at him in a moment of confusion then laughed. "Oh, that must be the Shu Toss. It's when the fathers of the bride and groom compete to see which grandfather names the firstborn. Although, I don't know who he's competing against and I don’t know what kid he thinks he's going to get to name."

Mako looked more appalled than surprised. "That's... an interesting custom."

"Yeah, well," she shrugged and the dial flickered above their floor. "The Water Tribe has a lot of traditions." She grew thoughtful, looking down at Asami’s head resting on her shoulder. "I like them though. I'm really glad we were able to do this."

"Me too," Asami, looking comatose for all the world, agreed in a mutter and once again Mako and Korra bit back a laugh at her expense.

A light on the wall pinged and the grill opened to reveal a Water Tribe woman in uniform, ready to direct the platform back up through the Palace to the appropriate floor. She saluted at the pair and waited instructions, and Mako wisely stepped away from the grate. With the sort of wordless rhythm that kept Korra and Mako such a well-oiled team on the battlefield, the Avatar leaned in and scooped her arms under Asami's legs to bear her up and carry her into the lift.

"You need any help?" Mako asked but Korra was looking at the slumbering woman in her arms.

"No," she answered softly. "I can handle this. Thanks, Mako."

The firebender, hands in pockets, smiled wistfully and nodded at the image of his friends as the elevator grill clung closed. He stood a moment in the atrium, listening to the party with a contemplative smirk before he rotated on heel to find out what the hell a Shu Toss was and whether or not a pair of former ProBending champions could get in on the action.

......

The door to the bridal suite swung open with some help from the footman, and Korra thanked the woman before carrying her bride inside to lay on top the bed among furs and rose petals. She noted the petals on mistake and pinched one between her fingers with a frown, wondering who the hell had left flower detritus all over her suite.

A weary sound from Asami brought her attention back around and she smiled to her bride where she lay languidly among the pillows, eyes still closed and fingers curled beneath her cheek. Her bride was an unaccountably beautiful image, as though escaped from a painting, and for a moment Korra could only hover and stare with bare appreciation. Somehow, this was her wife, on -their- bridal bed.

She shook herself after a moment and tried to refocus on the task at hand.

"Okay, let’s get you ready for bed," she suggested and knelt to help her out of her shoes first but Asami sat up abruptly, looking tousled but urgent as she looked around.

"No, wait," she insisted, reaching to cup her fingers around Korra's cheek. "I’m not tired."

"Yes, you are," Korra chuckled and kissed her fingertips as she unclasped the patent heels from her ankles. "And drunk, remember? You had too much of the wine."

"No, not too much," she shook her head. Her voice was breathless but Korra could hear nothing else as she was grasped by her mantle and pulled back onto the bed above Asami. "Just a little too much," the brunette then admonished with a laugh. "But I'll be fine. Help me out of this dress."

Korra didn’t trust herself to speak, but she had meant to get Asami out of her dress anyway. There was no intention of ever wearing the gown again; however, she knew her wife well enough to realize the importance of taking care of the dress and had meant to hang it up once she had Asami under the covers. Not wanting to argue, she silently reached around to Asami's back to tug carefully at the pearl buttons which made two sweeping lines down her spine. Asami sighed underneath her, distracting with her heavy breaths and petting fingers. Without a word and focusing as best she could on her fingers' work, Korra carefully managed to get the last of the buttons undone, just above Asami's hips.

"Korra," Asami hummed to her, pulling her attention back to her wife's lovely, tapered features. "Don't stop," she all but begged in a rare show of meekness. The plea settled into Korra's stomach like firewater, and her hand began to slide into the opening of the dress as she grasped Asami Sato with a new sense of possession. There were no words between them then, only breathy sighs and soft cries and the steady roll of two bodies who knew one another better than words could yet express. Everything had already been said, every vow had been made. They knew what they each needed to know. They belonged to one another and had for a very long time.

 

  
\------------  
  


 

The view of the bay from the black-stone cliffs was stunning, probably, but Korra couldn't quite tell with her focus on her tentative handholds as she made the thirty-meter climb. She had been warned that the cliff faces on the eastern bay were challenging for even experienced climbers but she'd been confident in her skills and perhaps overly so. She wasn't having nearly as easy a time as Asami, after all, who was practically gliding up the cliff face with enviable dexterity. A few years ago Korra might have been ruffled, but an older and more mature Korra could appreciate her wife's grace and aptitude. And, to be very honest, the view up was nothing to be ruffled over.

"Youre falling behind," her bride called over her shoulder and Korra snapped back to the moment, looking for her next hold.

"Yeah yeah..." she grumbled and reached along the crevice for grip, finding it and allowing herself to rely on the rock face as she shimmied upwards with aching muscles. The two were still enjoying their honeymoon and while many couples preferred to sightsee and relax in wicker cabanas, Korra and Asami had chosen a different sort of routine for their month away together.

Following in the footsteps of Aang and Team Avatar, the brides began their Fire Nation Isle hop on Crescent Island, moving westward through the archipelago all the way to Capital Island and then north to end on Ember Island, leaving no challenge denied in their wake. By Korra's tally they had been wind-surfing, cave diving, reef-swimming, bermuda fishing, volcano hiking, and now cliff climbing and even at Korra's level of physical prowess she was beginning to feel the strain in her shoulders. However, it was difficult for she and Asami to ever sit still for long and their natural propensity to compete with each other made sunbathing on the volcanic sand for days-on-end a fool's dream.

They did make several social calls, more out of Asami's interest than Korra's. Her distant relatives on her mother's side still lived in the same village as they had for three hundred years and Korra thought it fair that since their wedding had catered to her traditions that their honeymoon give Asami a chance to learn more about her own cultural heritage. The visits had been friendly and informative, and Asami had even gotten on well with a cousin closer to their age with whom phone lines had been exchanged. For her sake, Korra had a strong interest in seeing Avatar Roku’s Island and had been given the chance to learn more of her own Spiritual lineage at his shrine. Between the adventuring and the visiting, Korra counted the vacation as a success which was only challenged by the handful of idiots who hit on her wife whenever they left the jungles for the beaches.

Above her, Asami crested the lip of the cliff's ledge and pulled herself up before looking back to see to Korra's progress. With a smirk, she lowered a hand towards her.

"Come on, slowpoke," she summoned and Korra grimaced up at her, sweat lining her sun-kissed brow.

"Why are you so good at this?" She took another upwards lunge and managed to grab Asami's hand and a few grunts later was seated on the cliff ledge beside her, facing a panorama of cerulean blue waves and black beaches under an endless sky. It was a view most definitely worth the climb.

Asami nudged her. "You know that rock climbing is more about the legs, right?"

"I've got strong legs," Korra insisted. "You can't even handle a kick from me when I'm taking it easy on you."

"You never take it easy, on me or anyone else," came the wry rejoinder. "But climbing is a lot to do with hei-"

"I swear, if you're about to tell me you're a better climber because you're taller..."

Wisely, Asami just giggled and gave her wife's chin a kiss. Korra smirked back at the affection and for a moment the two simply sat, alone at the top of the world and basking in the summer sun.

“That tour guide was hitting on you,” Korra stated, interrupting the ambiance. Asami’s mouth twisted with a sarcastic curl.

“He was hitting on _you_ , and that's why I didn’t tip him.” She began to unwind and rewind her braid to better suit the climb. “He thought you were single.”

Korra scoffed and turned her attention back on the jungle which swayed like a verdant sea below their feet. “Yeah, you're probably right. And no matter how many times we’re in a newspaper together people are going to keep not taking us seriously,” a bitter note creeped into her tone. “I hoped that being married would solve some of that but people still see the Avatar and her ‘gal-friend’, Miss Sato.”

Asami peered at her, thoughtful, and then carefully began to unsling her daypack.

She cleared her throat. "I have something for you," she stated and twisted to sit on her knees, facing Korra with formality. She focused on her hands as she pulled a small wooden box from their pack and Korra, surprised, moved to sit in kind. She was reminded starkly of the moment she'd given Asami a box under a giant mushroom stalk four years ago.

"What's this?" She asked, genuinely curious and just a hint warry. Asami was never frugal, but she was not one to shower Korra in gifts and the Avatar hated to admit that accepting anything of value put her skin on edge. Material items continued to vex her, and the discrepancy between their occupations would never entirely vanish from Korra's sense of guilt. Despite this, she reached to accept the box.

Asami watched her, eyes sparkling with quiet pleasure as Korra opened the lid to reveal a simple gold-and-silver braided ring, woven like a seaman's knot. "It's a wedding ring," she explained. "I was supposed to give you one at the ceremony but it's not really a Water Tribe thing and I didn't want to mess with any more traditions. Couples in the Fire Nation exchange them and it sort of carried over to Republic City."

Korra paused, carefully removing the band to hold up to the light while Asami's expression shifted to something bordering on shyness.

"It just... it was really important to me when you gave me the necklace, and I wanted you to have something important too. I mean, for a while I thought about getting you a necklace too but I guess I figured that since you gave me something from your world, I'd give you something from mine." Perhaps unconsciously, she lifted a hand to the choker which still hung at the base of her throat, where it had every day since Korra had offered it to her. Her voice grew softer. "Sometimes when we're apart it's comforting to have this, because it reminds me what you said that day. I just wanted you to have something to remind you that I'm with you too." Her sly grin appeared. “Aaand, it may deter guys from coming onto you so much.”

Korra sighed, long and hard, and when she looked up it was clear to Asami the reason why: emotion had somehow seeped into every corner of Korra's expression and even threatened to spill from her water-blue eyes as she gazed back at this woman who had decided to love her despite her mistakes and through her trials. She held two hands out towards Asami.

"Will you put it on?" She asked in a husky voice and Asami's smile lit up. She pinched the band in between her fingers and held Korra's left hand.

"I was going to wait until the end of our trip, but this seemed like a better time for it," she explained and slipped the ring on her middle digit. "You don't have to say yes," she quoted and the Avatar blinked at her in a moment of confusion before the memory clicked and she was forced to stifle back a soggy chuckle. Asami’s smile just grew as she continued. "You don't have to say anything, but I wanted to give you this so you know that no matter what happens, I'm always going to come back to you.”

Finally the Avatar managed to look up at her wife, who was watching her with an enviable confidence.

"This is the most sappy thing you've ever done," she sniffled and Asami laughed as she reached to hug her.

 

\--------------

 

The hearing room was small, much more so than the grand court rooms which Asami had been in and out of at various times throughout her involvement with the upper echelons of the United Republic. She was actually relieved when she saw that they were being led into a smaller council chamber, since the idea of having to sit like criminals before the Justices already had her bristling. At least this way it felt more like a conversation and less like a formal case.

However, the matter at hand was very formal to the extreme. Since her marriage to Korra two months previous, Asami had decided to quickly undergo the necessary legal changes of her assets in order to reflect her change in marital status only to, unsurprisingly, find quick pushback from the various offices of administration. A fortnight ago her lawyer presented her with an official 'Notice of Delay' to the applications for her and Korra's marriage licenses and she'd been advised that the action would likely be 'indefinite'. Asami didn't care for words like indefinite. It implied a lack of control in a situation, as if it were somehow out of her hands, and she did not agree that this particular collection of documents could be something 'out of her hands'. After all, she _was_ married to Korra: officiated, witnessed, and consummated.

So, with typical Sato fixation, she had her lawyers bring the 'Delay' to court and now she and Korra sat at a bench opposite five judges of the Republic, who had all no-doubt turned out in respect for the Avatar.

Korra, irritable though she tended to be, was surprisingly calm. Asami glanced at her from time to time, taking in the confident set of Korra's shoulders and noting that the silver tunic she wore was actually pristinely clean and pressed. She looked rather... noble, in fact, and Asami was reminded that this was actually the Avatar beside her and not just her thoughtful, bold, playful wife. Korra flicked her a quick glance and squeezed her hand.

"Miss Sato, Avatar Korra," the Supreme Justice drawled and they both swiveled their attention back to the panel. The judge was gray and balding, but his tone was respectful despite his seniority. "We are assembled to review the application presented to the United Republic court for the marriage of these names given," he gestured from the documents in front of him to the four individuals (Tenzin and Lin Beifong had come as witnesses) waiting on the bench. The judge coughed. "A legal union between same gender couples is not commonly deemed acceptable by social standards in the United Republic," Asami felt her stomach clench with preemptive wrath. "But it is not the role of the Law to determine what is socially acceptable. It is the role of the Law to determine what is Just, and this court rules that the autonomy of two adults to make the decision to be joined is the Just right of any United Republic citizen. The court recognizes the marriage of Avatar Korra and Asami Sato. If there are no further questions, this court is dismissed," and with that he waited for the span of a heartbeat for any query then snapped his gavel against the table, ending the session. It had taken all of sixty seconds.

Asami turned to Korra, who was looking back at her with just as much surprised relief.

"Well, that was easy," the Avatar laughed.

Asami couldn’t even think of a response other than to smile with stupid glee at her wife. Tenzin broke the spell by clapping them both on the shoulders. "Congratulations, girls. In all my years on the Republic Council I've never seen a hearing act so efficiently."

"Yeah," Lin harrumphed. "It's almost like the old wads save the serious deliberation for the small-time stuff."

"This definitely isn't small-time," Korra asserted, getting to her feet as the Justices began to shuffle out of the room. "This is a big deal. Think of the other couples like us who don’t have to worry anymore."

"I agree full-heartedly," Tenzin was nodding, hands clasped behind his robes. "I'm not certain how often Avatar's involve themselves with local law, but I believe this is a significant accomplishment for the City."

"And the Republic," Asami pointed out.

"Yeah yeah, you two are shining beacons of hope for mankind," Lin rolled her eyes. "Now, can we get out of here? Some of us have actual law-and-order to maintain."

Korra gave her wife a look of disdain which particularly mimicked Lin's, and hand-in-hand they made to leave the courthouse.

"Man, am I relieved," Korra murmured as they stepped out into the empty hall. "I really thought they'd make it into a bigger problem than that."

"Me too," Asami sighed, still pleasantly buzzed on the reality of the ruling. She was, finally and officially, married to Korra and she simply couldn't believe how that simple fact pumped such adrenaline through her veins. It was possible, she realized, that she'd been distancing herself from being truly happy for this day just in case it wouldn't really arrive but her fears had been groundless after all. She leaned towards Korra abruptly and planted a kiss on her other woman's lips, causing Korra to falter in her step in order to return it.

"Alright, alright," Lin grumbled, pushing them along in front of her. "We can celebrate at the Island. As if you two need another excuse to extend your honeymoon."

"A month isn't that long, Lin," Korra groused over her shoulder.

"A month on the beach is long enough," came the curt reply. "Especially for two people who are _supposed_ to be rebuilding my city."

Asami rolled eyes under the lecturing, glad that neither Lin nor Korra could see.

"Besides, I don’t see what the big huff is," Lin continued, apparently not willing to be content until everyone else was unhappy. "Of course they were going to recognize the marriage. What else would they do? Argue it for a century just because it makes some people uncomfortable? No one's that stupid."

"You'd be surprised. Either way I’m just glad it _was_ this easy," Korra answered, holding the courthouse door open for her wife and friends. "The last thing I wanted to deal with was-"

A flurry of noise erupted on the courthouse steps, stalling whatever Korra had meant to finish with. Some nine reporters were on the steps, accompanied with cameras and pencils ready to jot down any tiny nuance of body language which Korra or Asami might accidentally slip. The questions came in a clamor.

"Avatar Korra, what did the Justices decide?"

"Misses Sato, do you intend to step down as CEO now that you're married?"

"Avatar Korra, why do you hate men?"

Asami felt her cheeks glow bright with indignation. She had, over the years, become accustomed to the onslaught of the press but this line of questioning was too much for even her strict social graces. To her surprise, however, Korra shook her hand to get her attention.

"Don't worry," she grinned, secretively. "I've got this."

Asami immediately worried.

"Hey hey," Korra lifted her hands to quiet the tumult. "To answer your questions, the Justices agreed our marriage is legal. Asami Sato is going to run Future Industries for the next one hundred years. And I don’t hate anyone. Really." She shrugged and slipped her hands into her pockets, as non-aggressive as possible. "I don’t even hate Zaheer, and he almost paralyzed me. I mean, I don’t _like_ the guy, but I don't hate him either. I even go check on him sometimes."

Asami blinked, wondering what the hell Korra was getting at but apparently the reporters felt the same.

"Avatar Korra, you’re saying you actually _visit_ the anarchist in prison?"

"Sure," she shrugged again. "He's off his rocker, but Zaheer's also an incredibly intelligent guy, and I like to hear what he has to say. And it's pretty neat to see him floating off the ground."

A reporter from the Elemental Times pressed forward with interest. No press had been allowed to interview Zaheer since his original incarceration. As a prisoner, he was considered too high of a risk to outside influences... or vice versa. "What sort of things does he tell you?"

"Well, it’s mostly philosophy about anarchy and the State of Nature. Sometimes he wants to talk about different writers from the Conqueror Age and he's very interested in the history of the Avatar spirit. But he spends most of his time in the Spirit World."

"Avatar Korra, do you mean to say that a mass murderer can access the Spirit World?"

She nodded, nonchalant. "Oh yeah. He's got better mastery of the Spirit World than most Bending Masters."

There was an audible gasp among the assembled group and Korra gave Asami another meaningful look, a smirk ghosting quickly on her lips.

......

"So," Asami dropped her bag between them as she slid into the car. "You misdirected their focus on our relationship to your relationship with Zaheer..." she was still in a state of stun, both from the ruling and the impromptu press conference. "Honestly Korra, I don’t know if that was brilliant or the dumbest thing you've ever done."

Korra slid in beside her, laughing. "Hey, if it worked, it worked. I like to ride the line between brilliant and terrible ideas."

Asami shook her head and started the engine. "No you don’t," she insisted. "You're just not taking this seriously."

Korra simply scoffed and leaned back into the seat, utterly at ease and proving Asami’s point. "I've just learned to let some things go, and what Republic City or the press or anyone else thinks about my marriage is something that I don’t care about." She looked over at Asami through a slick grin. "I love you, and everyone else can just deal with it."

Asami couldn't help but to be charmed at that, and she leaned over to give the woman a quick kiss before putting them into drive. They had a party at Air Temple Island to get to, after all.

The next morning there was a small article on page three of The Republic Reporter which detailed that Asami Sato and Avatar Korra had been married in the South Pole, a hallmark event for lesbian and gay couples in both the Republic and the Southern Water Tribe. On page two was a much longer article questioning Korra's political ties to anarchist subcultures and the potential threat such associations posed to Republic stability.


	6. 179 AG

  
The close heat of the room was sweltering; it soaked into the sheets like sweat and clung to the linen drapes in a midsummer miasma. It dripped down Asami's heaving chest in pale, gleaming rivulets and when she bent over Korra's mouth the Avatar could taste it in her skin, swallowing her heat as she swallowed her nipple.

A groan escaped Asami's open lips and her eyelids fluttered as her body contracted and pulsed, riding towards a harsh finale on the toy she'd fastened to Korra's hips. With her wrists bound together behind her it was all that the Water Tribe woman could do to watch with fascination as Asami tilted up her chin and came hard on top of her, her body rolling beautifully and flushed. Finally, with a satisfied noise and a smile at her wife she slowed then gingerly slumped to the side, leaving one hand to trace up the damp lines of Korra's chest.

Korra just watched her through the dimmed afternoon light, desire strumming in a delightfully slow rhythm through her veins. "So,” she broke through her companion’s haze, cocking an overconfident brow. “Was I any good?" Asami had never before asked her to use the 'stupid toy', as Korra had come to refer to it, but there was a first time for everything and with the rolling brownouts the city had been experiencing all afternoon they simply had to find some way to amuse themselves. The bondage had been Asami's idea, the toy was Korra's.

Asami smirked into her pillow and then flashed Korra such a look of coy amusement that the other woman felt it flutter between her thighs.

"Not bad," she admonished. "Almost as good as my old boyfriends."

Korra's smile melted into an affronted snarl. "What?" Asami's laughter only stung against the wound, however, and Korra sat forcibly upright. "Hey, that's not funny."

Asami took a lazy moment to settle her laughter, at least audibly, and slid upright as well to straddle her way across Korra's lap. "Sweetheart," she used a single digit to lift up Korra's chin, nipping at her bottom lip, and in that moment Korra was aroused enough to forgive her. "You're a great lover," she promised in a low note, nudging the toy between them. "One of my favorites."

"Okay, that's it," Korra collected a quick lick of flame in her fists, burning through the ties and singeing the bedsheets as well. She pulled hard, breaking the bonds, and surprised Asami when she grasped her around the waist to push forcibly back into the bed, drawing out a soft 'oof'. "You're being an ass," she accused even as she crawled on top of her, the sweat of their abdomens melding them together. Asami's offended retort was curtailed by Korra's kiss and then fingers wrapping into her black tresses, pulling almost too hard. "And when I'm finished, you're never making that joke again."

It was the first time Asami had ever experienced a flash of intimidation in bed, but Korra quelled it with another of her powerful kisses and the woman melted easily under so much raw, delicious heat.

 

\------------

 

"Misses Sato, I told you-"

"I heard you the first three times," the engineer snapped. "But you're still not hearing me. Open. Those. Gates." She leaned on her palms over the camp desk, jade eyes positively venomous as they scoured over the official in front of her.

The man in question sighed and took a pair of round spectacles off his nose. "It's a quarantine regulation. Do you understand what quarantine is, Misses Sato?" Asami's response was a short exhale from her nostrils and the man cleared his throat, awkwardly. "You can't go in. And the Avatar can't come out. Not until she's been cleare-"

Asami stood and twisted on her heel, unable to stomach a moment more of these bullshit 'standards'. She left the medical tent in two strides and walked into the frigid ice of the Northern pole, her eyes on the metal fence which had been so hastily erected around the igloo village in front of her. The sun was strong this time of year and although the hour was late the snow fields remained bright and glittering.

"Asami," Ikki's voice just barely registered through her temper. "Don't do anything stupid."

"Stupid?" Asami twisted to look back at the airbender who had accompanied her once word of the strange Flu and Korra's contraction to it had reached them in Republic City three days ago. "Did you even listen to that guy? They have no idea what they're dealing with, they're just running around like scared chicken hawks."

"Because twenty eight people are dead," Ikki stated flatly, and Asami all but flinched. "That's in less than seventy-eight hours. We're lucky they closed the town off as quickly as they did. That first village is almost entirely wiped out already and it's only been two weeks."

For once, Asami wasn't interested in numbers. "They can't _imprison_ her here."

Ikki took a step towards her, her tone softening. "That's exactly what they can do. And if you took a minute to really think about it, you'd see that they're doing the right thing."

"I can have her in the best care on the continent in three days," Asami seethed, but Ikki shook her head.

"She could be dead by the time you get her to Republic City, and in the meantime she could infect everyone else she comes into contact with. Asami, I know it's hard but the quarantine is here for a _reason_."

In that rare instance, Asami really hated Ikki. "Fine," she said abruptly. "Then I'm going in."

"No, you're not!" Ikki twisted a burst of air around herself and appeared quite quickly in Asami's path. "Really think about this, Asami. How is Korra supposed to focus on getting better if you get sick?" She reached to grab the other woman's shoulders and Asami couldn’t quite bring herself to meet Ikki's eye. "Korra went in there to help, and look what happened. It's going to be hard enough on her to get through this without worrying about you on top of it."

It took several moments for Asami's shoulders to slump in defeat. "Okay," she uttered, finally, and then took a deep breath. The pole air burned in her lungs, strangely gratifying. "I understand what you're saying. But there's still something I can do here."

Ikki knocked an eyebrow at her, waiting.

 

A crackle sounded over the loudspeakers from the camp, and a voice rang out over the intercom in a clear, firm tone.

_"Korra, it's me."_

From the depths of the medical tent that had been erected in the village center Korra flinched and opened bloodshot eyes. She’d heard her name floating in the ethers above and past the violent ache in her skull but there was something else to the voice which had roused her interest: something familiar and comforting.

" _Listen to me,"_  the voice continued, in and out of focus. _"I am right outside that gate. On the other side of the houses and the tents and the guards, I'm right here, waiting for you. And when you're better, I'll still be right here."_

It was Asami, her sluggish brain finally informed her. Asami was here, somewhere, speaking to her past the haze of fever and dehydration. She wished that she could see her. In fact she wanted desperately to.

 _"Don't give up, Sweetheart,"_  Asami's voice continued from a source she couldn’t find. _"I'm not giving up either. And I'm not going anywhere. I love you."_

 

With a heavy heart, Asami put the mouthpiece back on its stand and Ikki finally released her hold on the radio operator who had been unceremoniously tied to his chair while the engineer commandeered the controls. The operator shook himself, affronted, and waved a finger at Asami.

"I don't care who your daddy was; you'll pay for this," he swore, but Asami only tutted. She'd been operating outside of her father's purview for eight years but it was a fact that still went ignored from time to time.

"I'll wait for the subpoena," she smarted and stepped past him, on her way to the gate once more with Ikki at her heels.

Within the village, Korra's sweat-dappled fist clenched weakly about her blankets. Asami was nearby and she was going to see her again: That was the promise she made to herself before falling back into fevered dreams.

  
\----------  
  


Perspiration ran in rivulets down the silhouette of Korra's neck, dripping off the ends of her dark hair when she turned to catch the weighted ball that came rocketing towards her. She took the weight of it against her chest, moved her stance, and threw it back to Bolin.

"Twelve," she breathed out.

"Thirteen," he responded from across her, squatting and throwing the medicine ball with the strength of his shoulders, hips, and back. Fatherhood had only added to Bolin 's physicality and Korra somewhat envied his stamina.

She barely caught the ball that time, but forced her tired muscles to respond.

"...Fourteen," she wheezed, preparing to throw.

"Game set and match," a voice declared from the other end of the gymnasium, and Korra looked around to see her wife entering the room, looking none-too pleased.

"Not yet," she shook her head and let out a tempered breath, then powered the ball back to Bolin who caught it only to hold it nervously in his large palms. His glance worried between the two women.

"Um."

"Throw me the ball," Korra motioned with her hands.

"Korra," Asami's tone was a warning now, and the Avatar sighed.

"Look, we're almost done."

"You're supposed to be taking it easy."

"I'm fine," she turned finally to look at the engineer, whose brow was quirked at her in a way she both loved and dreaded. "I'm going crazy cooped up in the apartment and I want to get my strength back. I _need_ to get my strength back."

Ever since her brush with the Northern Flu seven weeks ago, Korra had been on the slow mend and coming back to health only to see how her regular muscle had atrophied was its own special sort of torture for Korra. It was like watching her legs go weak again, and she simply couldn't allow it.

Asami sighed and looked away for a tense moment. "At least take a break. You've been at it for an hour."

A compromise settled upon, Korra nodded at Bolin who only appeared relieved to have not been dragged into the debate. He gave Korra a thumbs up and shouldered the medicine ball.

"I'm gonna get some water; meet back here in fifteen?"

"Sure," she agreed, weary, and while the earthbender trudged off she snatched a towel from a nearby weight bench. "You can stop looking at me that way."

"Sweetheart," Asami sighed, exasperated. "You have to go easy. You almost died."

"I know that," she bit back, attempting and failing to keep her tone level. "If anyone knows that, I know that. I can't get it out of my head, actually." She settled at the edge of the bench and Asami drifted closer, watching her with patience while Korra collected her thoughts. "I've been thinking," she said finally, an ominous start to any sentence. "And I need to start getting ready for the next Avatar."

"The next Avatar?" Asami repeated, curious.

"Yeah. Ever since Vaatu, I've been alone as the Avatar. If I'm the start of a new Avatar cycle, then that means that my next incarnation is going to need a lot of help. Aang did his best to make sure I would be taken care of, but it wasn't really the greatest way to grow up." She looked up sharply at Asami. "Getting sick like that was the closest I've ever really felt to death, even more than my fight with the Red Lotus, and it showed me that I have to start thinking about the future. The Avatar's future."

"So," Asami carefully took a seat beside Korra. "What are you thinking?"

Korra wet her lips, studying the floor. "The White Lotus were in charge of protecting and teaching the Avatar, but all they did was to keep me away from the world. With the way that the world changes so fast, the next Avatar can't be locked away. I think that the best person to train the new Avatar is going to be me. And since I can't actually train her, I'll train someone else to do it."

Asami's lips drew into a pensive line as she listened. "... Like a pupil?"

"Yeah," she smiled a little. "An apprentice. Four apprentices, one from each element. I'll train them myself and when my time is up, they'll be the ones who train the new Avatar."

After a moment, Asami smiled too. "As much as I hate thinking about when your time is up, I have to admit that that's a pretty good idea."

"You think so?" She glanced up at her, dripping and hopeful. Korra needed Asami's validation in that moment; she craved it like she craved her old strength, knowing an instinctual faith that if Asami stated an idea would work then it would.

The engineer couldn't help the swelling of love that bloomed in her chest when Korra looked at her that way.

"I really do."


	7. 180 AG

"So, what exactly is it that you're looking for in an apprentice?" Asami attempted to be casual as they surveyed the ice-hewn gymnasium. Over one hundred young girls and boys had been sent by their trainers, parents, and schools to attend the examination in the Northern Water Tribe capital and the sea of brown-haired, blue eyed children running in excited circles was giving Asami a quick headache.

Korra, standing beside her in the stands, sighed. "I don't know. It's more than just talent." She twisted her features to the left and glowered out at the arena of children, trying to pinpoint exactly what it was that would help her choose a child to take under her wing. "Whoever I pick has to be able to help the next Avatar, and not just with how to be a waterbender. They need to be able to help them on the path to learning Balance."

Asami nodded, hemming on the same question. "It’s going to be hard to get that from a test, though."

Korra continued to stare at the trials, her brow in a pensive line that Asami couldn’t help but find adorable. It had been easier for them to begin with Rohan, who met all of the qualifications Korra could think of on top of being a direct descendent of Avatar Aang. Korra wanted for her next incarnation to be able to learn airbending from Aang's line in order to somehow reforge what Vaatu had severed. At nine years old, Rohan had been more than willing to accept the challenge of training with Korra, but there wasn't much to teach the kid which Tenzin hadn't already. Rohan and Korra's tutelage was more focused on the process of learning spiritual guidance than actual airbending techniques but the same would not be true of Korra's waterbending apprentice. She had decided to accept a child from the North Pole in an attempt to disprove favoritism between the Tribes, which was how they found themselves in the Northern Water Tribe once again... not that it was going very well. Korra had visited several schools in the Tribe before Asami suggested letting the kids come to her and the result was the vociferous mass of waterbenders before them. Perhaps not one of Asami's most clever ideas after all.

"Maybe I should just try to find a kid who's more like me," Korra answered after a thoughtful silence. "Then my incarnation can get the 'Korra' experience."

Asami arched a brow at her and looked back out at the assembly, wondering what a Korra-like kid would be when suddenly the Avatar snatched her around her abdomen and dove with her forcefully to the left. She only barely registered the whistling sound of falling projectiles when a row of icicles came plummeting down ontop of them from the arched ceiling, shattering through the benches to form a wall of solid ice spikes. The ice bench groaned and creaked, and then Asami watched as a tesseract of tiny cracks began to appear among the blocks.

"Run," Korra jumped to her feet and, her hand wrapped around Asami's wrist, took off down the bleachers towards the arena as the ice began to cave inwards around them, spilling them out into the arena of shocked, wide-eyed children. In the wake of the snow dust of the partially collapsed ceiling and bleachers, Korra helped her wife to her feet and brushed herself off.

"Alright," she uttered, dangerously. "Who did that?"

In unison all one hundred children pointed in the same direction, towards a young Tribe boy of eight with shaggy chestnut hair and ears that fanned just a little too far from his head. The boy was stock still, shocked and clearly frightened by the mess.

"Uh..." he offered a chagrined smirk. "Sorry?"

Asami looked from the four-foot tall tool of raw destruction to Korra. "That one."

 

  
\------------  
  


 

Clouds of yellow desert sand streamed past Asami and Korra as the jeep they'd 'confiscated' tore through the Si Wong dunes, just at the heels the Kwen Rebels ahead of them. The Rebels had a heavier titanium utility-truck but Korra and Asami had speed on their side. And of course, the Avatar.

Asami ripped her driving goggles down to the bridge of her nose and pushed the jeep into third gear, the soft sand making for dangerous traction even with the heavy paddle tires. Beside her, Korra stood and grabbed hold of the roof bars for support as she began to punch out rows of fireballs in the direction of the Rebel truck, but they only splattered harmlessly on the sleek sides.

"Can't you earthbend?" Asami shouted at her copilot, but Korra shook her head.

"Sand's hard enough to bend when you’re standing still," she roared over the engine. "If we could drive more stea-" she was cut off as the jeep dropped down the left of a dune, sliding forty meters to the soft bed below. Asami let off the gas to ease into their landing before tearing off to the east under an azure sky, sand kicking up in furious waves beneath them. The Rebel truck was riding above them now, still on the rise they'd fallen from.

"Hey," she pointed upwards. From their vantage, the truck was almost directly overhead. "I think only the plating is titanium. The undercarriage looks like steel."

The Avatar smirked and reached out her hands. "Nice," she muttered, but Asami realized Korra's intention a moment too late.

"Wait, don-"

Korra put her attention on the axle rod above her and bent it straight down into a hard 'V' between the wheels, collapsing the front end of the vehicle with efficiency... except that the forward momentum of the car hadn't been mitigated first. The result was the backend of the vehicle flipping immediately upright and the entire truck tumbling straight into the air and then down the slope of the rise to land in the sand on its top, back wheels spinning aimlessly. Korra and Asami winced in unison, staring as their jeep went whizzing by.

"Physics is a thing, you know," Asami chided with sarcasm and looked back at the empty desert in front of her just in time to realize that emptiness in the desert sand was an illusion and the horizon was in fact a very sudden drop to the dead riverbed which split the dunes.

"Asami!" Korra tried to warn but the engineer was already shifting into the brake, piling sand around the back tires. They came to skid just at the lip of the edge, stalling for several moments before they both breathed a loud, relieved sigh.

"You really should trust me a little more than that," Asami turned a smirk up at her partner, just as the sand ledge beneath them started to crumble and slide thirty yards of desert into the ravine. The jeep was helpless in the sand slide, but Asami had just enough presence of mind to turn from the two-hundred-foot drop and reach upwards for Korra, wrapping her arms around the Avatar's shoulders.

"Jump," Korra ordered, arms splayed out to gather the incoming current in a ball of wind beneath them, and Asami held desperately to her as the jeep plummeted to the gorge below, her muscles straining to not lose their grip. The airbent current circled around them, flinging minute sparkles of dust against their skin as Asami held to Korra in the draft, heartbeats pounding in time. They managed to slow their fall to a gentle drop and touched down in the riverbed among a cloud of dust and chaos, thankfully unscathed. Asami looked around them to her wife, who was still wrapped in her arms, and was surprised to see Korra's grin peeking through the orange dirt on her cheeks.

"What?" She demanded, warily.

"I just think we're a pretty good team," she answered.

A good team? Sure, they had only ended an hour long foot chase at the bottom of a dead river in the middle of the Si Wong with their quarry two hundred feet above them, a buried jeep, and nothing else to show for their efforts.

Asami tutted but reached to gently dust off Korra's cheek with her thumb. She supposed, with some reflection, that they could have been much worse off.

 

\-------------

 

Korra stood anchored in the shallows of one of Kyoshi Island's smaller bays alongside her Waterbending apprentice, Alruk, who wore a furiously tight frown as he put his focus into mimicking the smooth side-to-side motions of his master. Both were dressed in rolled up shirts and sleeves and Asami, relaxing with her collection of transpiritual poetry, was enjoying the sound of Korra's instructions over the lap of the waves. They had decided to bring Alruk to the island as a teaching opportunity... paired with the fact that it was an easy way for them to sneak away on an excuse of a vacation, however brief. One had to take such opportunities when they appeared, especially when one was running a major company in between Team Avatar missions.

"What do you feel from the water," Korra asked, rolling beneath a slate-gray sky in time with the waves.

Alruk' eyes were squeezed shut. "Um. I feel..." he blinked at her. "Like its heavy. Heavier than usual. Is that right?"

She knocked an eyebrow at the kid. "Yeah, kinda. See, you're used to sitting water, like in a pot or a pool. But this," she nodded at the bay. "This is water as it exists in nature. This is the sea, and it’s not only more powerful, it's also alive." She turned her wrists in a continual motion, moving forward and back again, like the waves that licked at their calves. "Here. Try to stop this wave as it comes in."

Korra nodded at a cresting wave some thirty yards out and, skeptical, Alruk attempted to focus his attention on it as it drew inland, using the same chest-outward motion they'd been practicing all morning. Asami saw that the wave did seem to flatten, but then immediately it crashed forward twice as hard, upsetting the young Water Tribe boy's balance. Korra laughed and reached a hand to help him steady.

"See what I mean about it being too powerful?"

"Yeah.." he mumbled, clearly a slight embarrassed.

She returned to their exercise. "This time don't try and stop the wave, because you can’t. Accept that you can’t stop nature, because you're not a force of nature. Being a Waterbender isn't about mastering water, it’s about mastering the art of water: its motions and its force. What force do you feel here, in the waves?"

He frowned again. "I feel... I feel a push and pull. That's what waves do."

"Yeah, but really feel it. Let it push and pull you with it."

Asami tilted her head, watching the two move with the steady force of the waves, which were actually quite gentle in this quiet bay and she realized with some impress that Korra had likely chosen this beach for just such a reason. She was enjoying being able to see Korra's work with her apprentices, much more so than she had expected. Rohan and Alruk brought out the patient thoughtfulness in the Avatar and it was strange to realize how after all these years Asami could still take her partner's powers for granted. Korra's intuitive knowledge of bending made the art appear so simple and yet Asami had to remind herself of watching Korra's struggles with airbending in their teens. The thought of her ever actually having to study waterbending seemed impossible to her - as absurd as it was, Asami tended to imagine Korra waterbending in her swaddle. Watching her train with Alruk, however, was a lesson in her wife's capabilities: not her physical prowess or spiritual fortitude but her ability to connect with other people and give to them the knowledge she had spent all of her life accumulating. It was wonderful to be a part of, even if it did take up much of their summers.

Several minutes passed of Asami watching the benders in this same line of thought before she recalled her unfinished report on the picnic blanket beside her. She sighed, steeling herself for technical jargon, and opened the folio up but when Korra's voice rose again to continue with her lesson she could not help her attention splitting once more.

"Do you feel that strength, in the water?"

Alruk nodded that he did, his brown fringe flopping in the humidity.

"Knowing that the water is stronger than you is important. It reminds us that we're still just human. Instead of trying to change the water, we try to learn from it and adapt to it. Waterbending is about finding the flow and moving into it, not against it. You accept that you can’t stop the wave, but you learn that you can flow with the wave." To prove her point, she began to push her will further against the cresting waves on the horizon, and Alruk and Asami watched as the wave grew tall, and then came to Korra's feet. She bent the water low, flattening and slowing it as it moved past her and up the beach until it lapped at Asami's blanket. She glanced reproachfully from the water to her wife, who gave her a quick wink.

"Wow," Alruk appeared excited as Korra let go her hold on the wave. "You can control the sea like that?"

She scoffed. "That wasn't the sea, that was one wave, and look," she pointed at the water, which was coming in faster now. "There's a consequence to diverting the natural course. You have to always be aware of that, and take responsibility for the opposite reaction of your actions. That's what balance is. It's an in," she pulled to her chest. "And an out," she pushed out with the wave again. "Two motions, opposite but complementing. And, when you understand that," she stepped into the wave but rather than crash against her, it split just at her ankles, flowing on either side instead. "You can begin to move with it."

The muscles of her arms tightened as Korra began to walk into the bay, moving her chest and shoulders back and forth with the waves and pulling them apart to circumvent her while she began to shift further into the exposed sand. Asami felt her report fall from her fingers, her attention suddenly as rapt as Alruk's while the Avatar began to carefully split the sea. Not stopping her focus on the water, she walked with almost brash courage into the bay until walls of water, thirty feet high, stood to her left and right. The water continued to flow inland around her, rising up the beach to the high-tide line but Korra was mindful of her presence, demonstrating the responsibility she was attempting to teach her pupil.

She looked over her shoulder at the nine-year-old boy, standing stock still in the surf. "You coming?" Alruk made no motion and Korra snorted. "You're not scared, are you?"

He wavered, bottom lip between his teeth and Korra looked up to catch Asami's eye. She didn't spare her a word, but Asami knew that look down to the core of her bones. That same smug challenge Korra had tossed at her nine years ago on a windy morning at Air Temple island.

_'You ready?'_

Asami Sato set her chin and stood. With the sea breeze ruffling the folds of her sundress she walked out into the damp surf, passing by Alruk with a light ruffle to his sea-flecked hair as she entered the path Korra had created. It was at once colder between the walls of water and though she felt the tingle of curiosity shiver down her spine, she also felt Korra's eyes burning against her body as she walked towards her. They met at the floor of the bay, all soggy urchins and crusted sand, and Korra, still a machination of raw power, lifted her mouth into a glad smirk.

"You're not scared?" She asked in an undertone. In answer, Asami reached out to touch the wall of water to her left, glancing fingers against the spray. She shot that same smirk back at the Avatar.

"With you? Never. For you... often."

Korra chuckled, her blue gaze lighting on Asami with such bare affection that it warmed her skin where the water had flecked it, and Asami was caught in a moment of strange fascination. There she stood, at the bottom of a sea, with a woman who had just cleft the waves to prove a point, and somehow it was Korra who was looking back at _her_ with admiration. How was it possible that someone this beautiful and powerful could look at her like that? As if she had split the sea herself.

 


	8. 181 AG

The interior tower of the Phoenix-Northern Air Temple was cool and dark with the coming winter, which threatened on the edges of the narrow windows with shards of pale ice. Korra stood in the late shadows, staring skeptically at the raised dais in the central tower and the white-sheet mass situated atop it.     
  
"Are you ready, Avatar Korra?" One of the Phoenix Temple monks asked and, resigned, she nodded. The sheet slipped from the hidden statue to reveal a marble image of the Avatar, stoic and strong. The statue stared into the distance ahead of her, weight rested on her forward foot and hands curled into fists at her sides while a carven image of Raava curled against her heart. The figure was powerful, ready, and Korra let out an unintentional breath to look upon her own visage etched into ageless stone.    
  
"Oh, it's beautiful," Asami murmured from her left and Korra harrumphed.    
  
"Yeah, it's..." she struggled on the lump in her throat. "It looks great." She finished, lamely, and her wife half turned to regard her.    
  
"You don't like it?"    
  
"No, I do," she promised and waved to the monks who were waiting desperately for her approval. "It looks great," she announced to them. "Thank you for doing this."    
  
Twelve bald, tattooed heads nodded with relief and the rest of the Avatar's entourage began to pile forward to examine the statue more closely. Bolin held a one-year old boy in his arms and brought him close enough so that he might touch it with eager hands before his airbender mother shooed them both away with a reprimand. A young Fire Nation girl was rounding the statue with suspicion, as though looking for faults (or possible footholds to climb), but Korra made no motion to disrupt her. Toitoi was Korra's newest apprentice, discovered after the girl was attempting to sneak away from her parents at one of the Firelord's State Dinners which Asami and Korra had been attending.     
  
"What's wrong?" Asami asked quietly while their friends examined the solitary icon. The entire Airbending family had made the journey to the reconstructed Northern Air Temple in light of the ceremony of the first Avatar image, along with their Republic City friends, Korra’s parents, her three apprentices, and the Metalbending Clan.    
  
"I don't know. It just..." Korra looked away at the rest of the chamber. "It seems kind of pathetic. Being in here, all by itself. Maybe I should have asked the Monks to put it in a corner somewhere in the Southern Air Temple after all."    
  
A year ago the Air Nation asked Korra when she would be ready to have a statue made and added to the long-standing catalogue of Avatars, and after some debate she had decided to have it housed in the Northern Air temple, colloquially called the Phoenix Temple ever since its slow reconstruction began eight years previous. The symmetry of the idea was very appealing, since the Phoenix Temple was intended to become the new spiritual home of the Air Nomads and because the Southern Temple seemed like it belonged to the past age, whereas she was the first Avatar of the 'new age'. But now, seeing herself alone in the grand room, she couldn't help but be forcefully reminded of just how alone she felt as the last Avatar.    
  
Asami smiled, sympathetic, and put her arm over Korra's shoulders. "You know, I was worried you'd feel that way. So, the apprentices and I had a talk..." she nodded to Alruk and Rohan, who both turned around with mischievous grins and ran out of the room. Korra's features knitted, perplexed, and she looked back at Asami.    
  
"What was that about?"   
  
"You'll see," she promised and gestured with her chin to the doorway the boys had left through. They reappeared almost at once, pushing a cart that was full of what looked to be... dolls.   
  
"What's this?" Korra demanded, amused, as she approached the cart to grab one of the figurines. Holding it up for examination she noticed it was made of woven cloth and cotton and had been stitched very purposely with big button eyes, a policeman's tunic, and sharp black eyebrows. It kind of looked like Mako.    
  
"They're us," Alruk exclaimed and dug another doll from the pile to show to her. This one was made of leather and seal-fur, and had a large smile painted to its face. "We each made a miniature friend so your statue wouldn't be all alone."    
  
Korra gaped at him and then at the doll in her hand and then slowly up at the group of people standing around her with all of their love and support reflecting in their smiles. "You all did this, for me?"   
  
"Of course we did," her mother assured. "We wanted to do something anyway, to celebrate today, and then when Asami told us about the idea for dolls we all thought it was just perfect."   
  
Korra looked to Asami next, as if needing her verification that this beautiful act was real, and the engineer just smiled and then pointed out the three apprentices. "It was their idea, actually. I just told everyone else about it."   
  
Korra looked at the kids, each grinning with pride, and then pulled them into a swift, strong hug which the oldest pointedly slipped out from.    
  
"Come here and hug me," she ordered past the sentimental itch in her throat but the Airbender boy took another step out of range.    
  
"Nuh-uh," he insisted, far too mature to be hugged in front of all of his friends. Bolin, however, surged forward and scooped Korra upright.    
  
"Kids, everyone hug Korra!" He shouted and the two of his children who could actually walk scrambled forward to wrap around her legs. Korra would have laughed, except that Bolin had squeezed the air out of her, so she just patted his back in turn before finally managing enough bodily autonomy to bend and pick up his three-year old, Pearl. She posed the girl on her hip and looked around at the group, attempting to not be embarrassed by the emotion she felt welling in her chest. She handed the doll of Mako to the little girl.   
  
"Here, want to put this somewhere pretty for me?"   
  
Pearl, who was by all accounts a carbon copy of Opal, grinned to do just that and climbed down to place the doll between the statue's feet, where he slumped as if bored.    
  
"See?" Alruk stuck his hands on his hips. "Now she's not alone."    
  
As if they all planned it, everyone began to turn to the pile and dig out their personal dolls to place at the statue's feet until they spilled off the dais and onto the floor. Images of the Airbender family, Bolin and his children, Mako, the Beifongs, and the Water Tribe royal family surrounded the statue of Korra and when she looked back up at it she found that she liked it very much after all.    
  
"Here," Asami murmured and placed one more figurine in her hand. She looked down to see a small metal statue, stylized to look like a woman with long hair dressed in a flowing, formal robe and wearing a serene, upcast expression. She could tell immediately that it was meant to be Asami.    
  
"You made this?"   
  
She nodded back, smiling, and Korra waited for half a heartbeat before tossing her arms around Asami's shoulders. Unlike when she hugged Rohan, though, Asami did not try to pry away.

  
  
\--------------   
  


The forests that swept up the foothills outside of Zaofu were old and temperate, teeming with dry pine and fir and bordered by wild meadows which swayed lazily in the sun. Korra, straddled atop her Polarbear Dog, took a deep breath of the clear air and smiled with satisfaction. It was a beautiful day for a ride.   
  
"Let's stop here," Asami suggested and slid off Naga's saddle. The Avatar saw no reason to argue and followed suit, then began to uncinch the heavy leather assemblage on Naga's back. The saddle came sliding down and the Polarbear Dog shook herself with a grunt of thankfulness before nosing off into the shrubs. Korra smiled to watch her old friend pick up the scent trail of some creature and follow it loudly through the hills.  
  
"Don't go too far, Naga," she called out with little hope of being heard.   
  
"She'll be fine," Asami promised and Korra saw that the heiress was pulling a picnic blanket from their bags. "She's the biggest thing out here."  
  
"I hope you're right," she shrugged and moved to help set up lunch. From the hill they were on she could see the lotus domes of Zaofu in the distance but that didn't mean that they weren't still in the wilderness.   
  
"Of course I'm right," Asami shot with a smirk. "I did some research."  
  
"You must have been really bored if you were researching Zaofu's forests," her wife returned but Asami just gave her a knowing glance and began to open their prepared packages. They arranged themselves half in the sun and as the fresh breeze off the nearby river picked up Korra was reminded again of just how pleasant this bit of wilderness really was.   
  
"Do you like it out here?"  
  
"Yeah, this place is beautiful," Korra agreed readily, leaning back on her palms. "And it’s great to get out of the city. Any city. I feel like I've done nothing but commute between Republic City, Capital City, and the Ba Sing Se for a year now."  
  
Asami nodded. "Me too," carefully she pried the lid off a box of rice balls, examining them for shape and texture with meticulous focus. "...Which is why I bought this hill."  
  
Korra, who had been opening a bottle of white-sake wine, halted. "What?"  
  
The engineer cleared her throat and pointed past Korra's shoulder to the riverbed which wound through the meadows some three hundred feet south of them. "From that river to," she pointed behind them towards the sheer gray mountains that locked around Zaofu. "About sixty acres that way. I thought that would be enough room for Naga to roam around."  
  
Korra was still staring at her, but now her brow was furrowed close with a confusion Asami found adorable. She decided it was time to put the cherry on top.  
  
"I really like this hill top for the house," she stood, pointing around them. "We can put a training yard over here and a copter pad back there, and I was thinking we could build the garage under the hill. It's steep on the west side so I'd love to just build into the hill and have a separate entrance around the house," she gestured for Korra to join her where she stood facing the meadows below and, slowly, the Avatar did as bid. Asami put her hands on Korra's shoulders and faced her towards the city. "We could have our bedroom right about here and see the sunset on the domes in the evening."  
  
Korra nodded numbly along, but her silence was beginning to worry Asami. Her fingers weakened around Korra's biceps. "What do you think?" She asked gently and after a moment, Korra cleared her throat.   
  
"You planned all of this, without talking to me?"  
  
Asami pressed her bottom lip, feeling a strike of chagrin. "I did it for you," she emphasized. "So we could have our own place and because I- know- you’re not a city-girl. I know how cramped you feel in Republic City. And Naga too. But out here you can both run around, I can have all the room I want for my projects and still be just a chopper ride from the Zaofu office." She knew she was selling it too hard but she couldn't seem to stop herself. Anxiety wasn't something she had ever really learned to carry very well. "And I just... I really wanted to build you a house. I thought it would be good for us."  
  
Korra's shoulders relaxed under her hands and she turned to look at her, a hard little twist at the corner of her mouth. "It'll be perfect for us," she agreed, and Asami blinked twice before she started to smile back.  
  
"You really think so? You like it?"  
  
In answer, Korra's arms came swiftly around Asami's midframe and she lifted her straight off her toes, laughter in her smile. "I love it! This is going to be awesome!"  
  
Asami was laughing too, with both mingled relief and new excitement. This _was_ going to be awesome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tired of adorable fluff yet? There's so much more where this came from!


	9. 183 AG

The washroom mirrors were lost beneath the opaque glisten of hot steam, the result of nearly thirty minutes of running water from the walk-in shower and perhaps the close press of the two active bodies inside.

For the second time, Korra arched her back against the mosaic tiles, her breath caught high in her throat and the shower water flecking her chest like little reminders of her wife's impassioned kisses. Her wife, as if happened, was still kissing her but not along her chest. Asami was poised on her knees between Korra's legs, her red-painted nails digging into her thighs as she held her with one hand and ventured inside with the other. Her strokes had become aggressive, too much so, and Korra knew she'd be sore after she came.... but the combination of mouth and hands and her beloved's demanding jade gaze ensured that it was worth it. Korra gripped a handful of Asami's damp hair and opened her mouth in a sharp cry, momentarily seeing nothing but beautiful bursts behind her eyes.

Asami was slow to remove her mouth. "That do it?" She asked, voice full of coy delight and Korra could only nod weakly back. She slumped against the wall for balance, not sure of her legs anymore but Asami, giggling, stood to wrap her safely in her slender arms.

"I... can’t even describe that one," she swallowed and leaned her cheek on Asami's shoulder.

"I'll take that as a good sign. And a good start to our anniversary."

Korra paused, brow quickly knitting together as she attempted to remember the day's date. She was glad Asami couldn't see her bewilderment but somehow the engineer seemed to sense it.

"... You didn’t know." Her warmth was slipping backwards. "I thought you came home early to surprise me for our anniversary, and you didn’t even fucking know."

If her ire wasn’t clear enough in her tone, it was set in the sudden shift of her body language and the harrowed line of her mouth when she looked back at Korra. The Water Tribe woman opened her mouth to apologize but Asami turned without giving her a chance and, not even shutting off the water, moved to leave the shower.

"Asami, don’t," Korra moved in time, sinewed arms wrapping possessively around her from behind with a resolute refusal to let her leave. "I didn't come home early because of our anniversary, alright? I came home because I missed you and I wanted to see you. I hate when we're not together. Everything just feels... off."

The woman in her arms didn’t make a sound, but after a tense moment Korra could feel her body relax back into her. She abstained from a response, at first, but she did turn back around to face Korra. Much more demure, she lifted a hand and cupped the Avatar's chin to kiss her.

"Okay," she said at last.

Korra smirked fondly back. "Okay. So, let’s go do something fun for our anniversary."

"Like what?"

She shrugged. "I dunno, steal something and crash it?"

 

\-------------  
  


 

Air Temple Island was unchanging despite the rapid modernization of Republic City and Korra was silently thankful for that small blessing. She didn’t mind or even dislike how the city grew and developed at such a rapid pace, but it was a nice reprieve to be able to return to the island that had once been her home and enjoy the tranquil sanctuary for what it still was.

At the moment it was quiet under nightfall with only a few lights left on in the temple where the rest of the family was still winding down from dinner. She and Asami were glad to be invited to the party, as they always were, but the hour had finally grown late enough for them to turn in. With nothing more than a smile between them, Asami had slumped herself ontop Korra's shoulders and the Avatar happily piggy-backed her wife down the island promenade towards the ferry, enjoying the fall breeze off the bay.

From her spot nestled on Korra's back, the engineer yawned.

"Tired?" Korra asked.

"A little. I'm glad to be visiting but it’s been a long week."

"We can just stay the night here if you're too sleepy to drive to the apartment," she reminded. They kept the penthouse suite at Future Industries furnished for their occasional visits into the city: between Korra's Avatar duties and Asami's work with the company, they had plenty of opportunities to use it still.

"No, I'll be fine. I have to be on the Airship pretty early, and I'd like to spend some time together before I go."

Korra rolled her shoulders, adjusting Asami on her back. "We've been together all week."

Asami made a soft 'tutting' sound and then Korra felt warm lips wrap around her earlobe as she chewed on her, a soft 'purr' sounding just quietly enough for Korra's entire body to run instantly hot. "Not what I meant, Avatar," Asami whispered in that promising tilt of tone.

Suddenly, Korra's steps were moving a bit quicker towards the ferry. "Got it," she asserted.

Just as they were rounding the bend of the ramp to the dock, laughing between them, Korra noticed a shadow among the pier poles and then recognized the moonlight that framed Jinora's head and slouched shoulders. She slowed down and motioned her chin towards the airbender, getting Asami's attention.

"Hey Jinora," Asami called as they approached. "We didn’t think anyone would be down here."

The airbender tilted her attention over her shoulder at them and Korra noted a distinct sense of begrudge from the other woman.

"Yeah, just wanted to get away from the party for a minute," she responded in a lackluster voice and returned her gaze to the bay.

"...You want to talk?" Korra tried next.

Jinora was quiet for long enough that Korra felt rude but finally she deflated. "Sorry, but 'the world's cutest couple' is kind of the last thing I want to be around right now."

Korra cut a look to Asami, still on her shoulders, and silently the heiress climbed back to her own too feet. Uninvited, Asami took a seat beside Jinora, crossing her legs daintily beneath her and smoothing out her skirt.

"Is this about Kai being back in town?"

To Korra's surprise, Jinora actually put her head down on her linked arms. "Ding-ding," she muttered. Asami sighed a bit and Korra came around on Jinora's other side.

"Jinora, you could talk to him if you wanted. I thought you two were still friends," she tried.

"I don’t want to talk to him. I want him to leave and to never have to see or think about him ever again," she declared with less vehemence than she had likely intended. In fact, she sounded rather defeated and it bothered Korra to see her friend so down.

"Wow," Asami mouthed. "So, you’re not the least bit over him, huh?"

Jinora let out a frustrated sigh and leaned back on her hands. "I am over him. I’m completely over him, and I’m completely satisfied in my decision to end our relationship. I'm happy with my work with the new acolytes and he's happy at the Phoenix temple."

"So," Korra shrugged. "What's the problem?"

Jinora just sighed again. "I don't know. It’s like... when I saw him again everything just sort of..."

"Quit being so happy?" Asami guessed and both Jinora and Korra looked to her. The airbender nodded and Asami smirked without much humor. "Yeah. That's how it felt when you guys brought Korra back to Republic City."

Korra felt her cheeks color, disliking the reminder of when she'd broken Asami's heart. Even after a decade there was a thread of guilt there, despite their success at building a life together.

"I was _convinced_ I was over Korra and happy with the life I'd put together," Asami continued. "And then she called me at the office, right after you guys got back in town, and I remember feeling so relieved..." she shook her head at a fond memory, then huffed. "The point is, at the time I didn’t want to be in love with Korra again, so I told myself I wasn’t. Over and over, every time we were together."

A sharp point was twisting in Korra's breast as she listened. She'd never heard this story from Asami's perspective and it was more hurtful than she had expected. Coming back to Republic City had been hard on her as well, but knowing that every day had a chance for her to see Asami had made the transition bearable. It seemed that Asami had seen that time differently, however.

"So..." Jinora encouraged. "What changed?"

A small smile slipped along Asami's cheeks. "Well, Korra did. Whenever I tried to take a step back from her she'd take another step forward. And she'd smile at me and..." she shrugged, helplessly. "There wasn’t anything I could do against it. Which is kind of the point I'm trying to make. My father told me that there's no equation to matters of the heart, and I realized that trying to break down my feelings for Korra into a formula I could solve wasn't going to ever work. You may not be able to control what you feel, you can only control how you act on your feelings. So, if you don’t want to go talk to Kai then don’t, but it’s just a waste of energy to sit in the dark and tell yourself you don’t have feelings for him when you obviously do."

Jinora let out a soft huff, studying the water with the same thoughtful recognition which she gave to the other problems of the acolytes. After a minute, she got carefully to her feet and cleared her throat.

"Okay," she said simply and bowed with formality at Asami. "Thank you for the advice. It has given me something to meditate on."

Korra knew she shouldn't have expected much else from Jinora, who was her father's daughter, but she did offer an encouraging grin as Jinora turned to her.

"Don't sweat it too much," she offered. "If there's anything I've learned, it’s that there are no right answers in life. Just different paths and we try to our best to walk the one that’s best for us and the people we love."

Jinora smiled a little at that and bowed again. "Thank you, Korra. That's very wise."

The Avatar dipped her head in acceptance of the compliment from someone whose own wisdom she herself often sought out, and they watched as Jinora began back up the hill towards the Temple. In her absence, Korra looked back at Asami, who was regarding her in the moonlight.

"So... you didn’t want to love me?" She asked to fill the silence. Asami tilted her head.

"Korra, I was _still_ in love with you, after all that time. But no, I didn’t want to be," her voice faltered with a sad note. "It was hard to be in love with someone who wasn't there."

Korra's attention fell to her knuckles which linked and unlinked together in her lap. "I wanted to be there," she muttered.

"Sweetheart," Asami called to her, opening a hand in her direction, but Korra felt uneasy. Not to be denied, Asami crept towards her. "I know you did. I probably knew that even then but I was also twenty-two and angry. And, if you remember, you did tell me to move on."

Korra brushed her hands back through her shaggy bangs, feeling a gross anxiety curl in her stomach. She remembered, with a stark clarity, being stuck in her wheelchair with a feeling of helplessness while her friends continued their lives outside of her reach. "Yeah, I remember." She opened her eyes to see that Asami was smirking at her in a way that wasn't helping, and the engineer brushed forward to pull Korra's bottom lip between hers... which did help. Korra lifted her hands to Asami's shoulders, trying to let go of the tension that the memories of her injury had brought back into her muscles. "So," she cleared her throat once Asami broke the kiss. "What really changed your mind?"

"To just give in and just accept being in love with you?" She sighed, fingers toying a tendril of Korra's hair. "Well, making out on the shop floor helped."

Korra snorted. "And what if I hadn't have kissed you then? Would you just have kept trying to not love me?"

Asami shook her head, leaning her forehead against Korra's till the Avatar could feel her wife's warmth spreading through her, from between her eyes and then down her chest. "I was going to kiss you that night you came to my office with a picnic basket. Remember, we danced on the rooftop?"

"Yeah," Korra grinned harder. That was a very good memory, much more suited than the ones of being in the South Pole and trying to heal, alone. "But you didn’t."

Asami laughed. "No, I recall that I got distracted with making things."

"Well, that sounds familiar."

She grimaced. "Sorry, it's just that when I get an ide-"

Korra cupped her cheeks and pulled her closer for another kiss, not wanting to start that particular argument again. "I know, I know," she promised, petting back through Asami's black curls. Enthused and comfortable in her arms again, Korra let Asami press into her until she was on her back beneath the other woman, swept up in her perfume and the silk curtain of her hair, the lapping of the bay a comforting rhythm nearby. Whether or not they deserved the title of ‘world’s cutest couple’ might have been a matter of debate, but it would in fact take the two a comically long time to recall that they had made plans to go home.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may be wondering "what happened to 182??" But I decided to spare you all from the inevitable house-construction arguments such as the appropriate color back-splash and whether or not the faucets match the theme of the bathroom.


	10. 184 AG

Asami Sato was simultaneously having the best and worst summer.

It began with the apprentices coming to stay at the estate for their summer break, as they did every year. Alruk flew down from the North Pole, Toitoi came in from her family's village in Hira'a, and Rohan was in from Republic City along with his bison, Chum. It was always fun having the apprentices around and Korra kept the kids on a busy regiment of physical and mental training. Then, when Bolin and Opal's new baby finally arrived a few weeks into the summer, Korra had the idea to invite their older kids out to visit and to give the couple a much-needed break. So, that was how Mo, Pearl, and Yao were invited to stay. Of course, when the Beifong kids came to the Earthen States they begged and pleaded that their cousins from Zaofu be allowed to visit too... so Lun and Mang had been visiting for nearly a week and what had started as a busy summer of managing the Avatar and her apprentices had turned into an all out 'Home for Overly Enthusiastic Bending Children plus Korra'. What made matters worse was that Lun had a crush on Toitoi, but Toitoi was more interested in breaking into Chum's paddock while the Metalbending brothers were at one another's throats when they weren't teaming up against their cousins and the twins had made Alruk their chief in the art of destruction while the whole time Rohan just brooded at the skyline over some girl back in Republic City. On a related note, Asami had noticed three gray hairs that morning.

Currently, she was attempting to harvest supper for the household of ten while Korra dealt with the most recent crash from the vicinity of the side yard. Rohan sat at the kitchen bar, pretending to be too mature for playing out of doors and reading from Asami's library instead.

"Asami," his big green eyes popped up from the book. "What's computing hardware?"

She glanced at him over the chopping board. "Basically? It's any computation aid. What are you reading?"

He held up a blue-bound book with the title "An Analytical Engine" etched in italics and Asami snorted softly. "Maybe we should start you off with something a little more basic and work our way up to mechanical engineering. I'll find you something."

The fourteen-year old, who had recently mastered the 'indifferent shrug', rolled his shoulders to illustrate how little he cared one way or another, just as Korra came around the corner with an armful of cabbages and an apologetic cringe on her features.

"So, the bad news is that the kids got into the garden. The good news is that I saved the cabbages."

Asami just heaved what felt like the fiftieth heavy sigh of the day and motioned for her to put them in the sink. "Remind me why we thought we could handle a houseful of children?"

"I thought you wanted to practice?" Korra stuck her tongue out at her wife.

"Practice?" Rohan perked up. "Are you going to have a baby? Or... adopt a baby?"

Asami stiffened and went back to her chopping. "I never said that. It was more like an experiment. Just to see what it would be like."

Korra said nothing but there was a sudden strain in the air, and Rohan flicked his gaze between the two women with some perceptible discomfort. Fortunately, the moment was easily broken by the bright ringing of the front doorbell. In unison the three looked up and around in the direction of the front of house but could see nothing from this corner of the kitchen. Asami looked to Korra, who shrugged in response to the silent question.

"I'll get it," she offered quickly, shirking the washing and sidestepping Asami to make for the foyer. It was a small relief to escape the possible topic of adoption, anyway.

It was not common for she and Asami to receive unexpected guests due to the remoteness of their home, but the occasional telegram or official did arrive from time to time and Korra was partially preparing herself for the worst when she opened the door, only to be surprised by a dark-haired girl, no older than ten and wearing a very disheveled academy uniform. She had a backpack on her shoulders and firm little frown on her mouth as she stared up at Korra without flinching, a rarity for most people when meeting the Avatar for the first time.

"Uh, hello," Korra offered. "Are you lost?" She bent some to meet the girl's eye level.

The girl bowed formally. "No miss, my name is Zhao Ji and I am looking for the home of Avatar Korra."

Korra pulled her mouth to the side and straightened to stick a hand on her hip. "Well, you found her. I'm the Avatar," she smiled. "But you can call me Korra, if you want."

The girl was still in her bow. "Thank you, Master Korra."

Master... "Wait, what?"

"Master, I've come all the way from Omashu to train as your earthbending apprentice." Finally she stood to her full but small stature and faced Korra with the utmost in determination. Korra faltered.

"Um, I'm not sure what you heard but I'm not ready to chose my earthbending apprentice..." she looked from the girl's emerald stare to her worn shoes, and then glanced around her to the driveway, not seeing anything out of the ordinary except for a parked school bike. "Wait, how did you get here? Where are your parents?"

In response, Zhao's little frown tightened. "I made my own way to Zaofu, Master. And you don’t need to worry about getting permission from my parents," she hesitated a half moment. "They passed away last year."

Korra felt the sigh in her throat but swallowed it. The kid was obviously tired and stubborn: she didn’t need a lecture, and she clearly didn’t want sympathy.

"Look, I'm sorry Zhao Ji, but I'm not taking on any more apprentices right now. Why don't you come inside and have some dinner? Then we can figure out how to get you home." She moved from the doorway and gestured for the girl to come inside, although Zhao hesitated a step before crossing the threshold. Korra watched her with some curiosity, wondering to herself how she was going to explain this one to her wife, but thankfully Asami seemed to accept the information of another mouth at the table with temerity.

"It's nice to meet you, Zhao," she said, wiping her hands with a kitchen towel and reaching to shake with the solemn ten year-old. Zhao bowed her chin.

"Thank you. It's an honor to meet you, Misses Sato."

Asami gave Korra a quick smirk over the child's head and cleared her throat. "Well, now that we have that out of the way, why don't you go in the backyard and say hi to the rest of the kids."

"I'll show you," Rohan volunteered and Zhao Ji shot the teenager a shy look, showing more modesty with the airbender than she had with either the Avatar or Future Industries exec.

"Rohan, tell them to wash up for dinner, will you?" Asami requested as they walked towards the back door and he nodded before the two vanished around the corner. Asami looked back to Korra, who wore a sheepish grin.

"We're starting a collection at this rate," she tutted and Korra moved around the counter towards her as Asami turned to the stove.

"Yeah, sorry. She just sort of showed up," her arms fell around Asami's waist from behind.

"It’s all right. The poor kid looks like she hasn't eaten in a day. Is she all by herself?"

"It looks like it. I think she ran away from school."

"Keystone's School for Girls," Asami pointed out. "That's where her sweater is from."

"What's that, some kind of finishing school for orphans?"

Asami snorted and turned her chin to kiss Korra's cheek where it rested on her shoulder. "It’s a primary school, but I don’t think it’s exclusive to orphans. Why?"

"She said her parents were dead, and that she's here to be my apprentice."

"Oh, that's awfully hard," she trailed, stirring between two different pots of vegetables. Half of the household was vegetarian, and the adults had found it simpler to cook three times the amount of vegetables than to put together two different entrees. "But, it’s not like you were looking forward to running more exams anyway."

"Asami, she can't stay here," Korra responded, as if that were very obvious. Asami glanced back at her.

"Why not?"

"Because she just showed up! I'm choosing my apprentices, they aren't choosing me. The Avatar can’t just take on anyone who knocks on the front door."

"Hmm," the engineer hummed and stirred. Korra sighed.

"What?"

"It's your decision, Sweetheart. But, come on, you saw that kid. She's been on the road from Omashu. We both know that must have taken a week at least and you're saying that she did that all on her own? That's a little more than 'anyone who knocks', don’t you think?"

Korra hemmed some in turn and rubbed her chin on Asami's shoulder as she considered that.

"And," Asami's tone lifted. "Didn't you run away from home when you were sixteen to study airbending? And you had Naga. This girl doesn’t even have a Polarbear Dog to look after her."

"I was seventeen," Korra corrected and slid from her wife to gather clean plates. "But I think I get the gist."

Asami let the point stew for a few minutes more while Korra set the table, knowing that she was letting herself think it through. Eventually the Avatar cleared her throat.

"I guess I can at least her test tomorrow, see what she can-"

A clap like thunder sounded from the side yard and Asami and Korra turned in unison for the backdoor, rushing outside and around the house to find the kids and Naga standing outside of Korra's training arena below the hill. Zhao and Pearl were standing opposite one another in the arena, bending ten-foot square blocks of stone at each other in the center. The two slabs of stone groaned in opposition, shivering under the force of the two benders with neither gaining any traction. Beads of sweat already dappled Pearl's brow even as she grit her teeth and pushed, but Zhao's stance was steady and resolved. Like the earth.

"Pearl! Zhao Ji!" Korra barked. "Put those down."

All heads swiveled to Korra except for the two girls in the arena: neither so much as flinched from their stances. Korra growled and stomped, pulling up her fists. A third slab of rock, wider and taller than either of the blocks, came rocketing up from the earth underneath and sent both of the squares shooting skyward. Korra reached for and bent both blocks, layering them neatly on top of one another in the yard before turning on the two girls.

"Pearl, I've told you no bending at the others without a Master present. And Zhao, how can you expect to be my apprentice if you're not even willing to listen to me?"

Both girl's bowed their heads under Korra's angry reprimand, but Alruk spoke up before Zhao could answer. "Zhao said she's here to be your apprentice and Pearl said _she_ was supposed to be your apprentice, so they wanted to duel to see who's stronger."

Korra pinched the bridge of her nose. "Guys, it’s not about who’s the strongest bender. I didn’t ask any of you to be my pupils because you were the strongest airbender or firebender or waterbender. I'd like to think you knew better than that."

Pearl was sniffling now, but Zhao lifted her head. "I'm sorry, Master. But, I'm supposed to be your apprentice. That's what Toph Beifong said."

The yard went silent as ten sets of eyes swiveled onto the girl.

"Toph... Beifong?" Korra repeated with care and Zhao nodded matter-of-factly. The Water Tribe woman frowned. "Zhao, Toph was Pearl's great-grandmother and she's been missing for at least ten years."

"I know. She came to me a in a dream and told me to seek you out. She said to tell you that I'm to be your earthbending apprentice and that if you didn't believe me then I should tell you to," she looked up to the left as she tried to recall the message exactly. " _Trust a twisted old lady, Twinkle Toes_." The yard continued to stare and Zhao's resolve appeared to falter.

"I’m not crazy," she insisted with sudden earnest, looking up at Korra with wide, verdant eyes. "You have to believe me."

Asami glanced at her wife for Korra's reaction, but the Avatar was calm as she stepped towards Zhao and took a knee in front of her. "I believe you, kid." She reached and patted her palm against Zhao's cheek. "Come on and get washed up for dinner. We'll talk about this dream stuff in the morning, okay?"

Zhao blinked and took a deep breath, then nodded, apparently satisfied with Korra's answer. She and the others began to turn inside, but Pearl lingered behind with her fists trembling behind her back. Asami saw the anxiety in the girl's posture first and touched Korra's shoulder to nod towards her.

"Hey, Pearl," the Avatar walked to the other girl, her hands in her pockets. "I'm sorry I snapped at you in front of everyone."

Pearl was still looking furiously floorward. "Are... are you really going to make her y-your apprentice?"

She frowned, debating her response. "I might, yes."

"B-but I wanted to be your apprentice," her small voice broke, and Korra's shoulders slumped.

"Hey, look. Just because you aren't my apprentice, doesn’t mean I can’t teach you Earthbending. I taught your mom Airbending, you know."

"...Yeah," she rubbed at her nose. "I know."

"And even if I do make Zhao my apprentice, you'll always be my godchild. And my friend. And maybe someday you'll even be on Team Avatar."

The girl brightened at that, looking up with sudden hope. "Really?"

"Maybe. It's dangerous work though, and you have to study really hard. And also get your dad's permission..." she was quickly beginning to regret having brought up the Team Avatar idea, in fact. But what else could she have done, with Pearl almost in tears?

The suggestion seemed to do the trick however, since Pearl wiped her cheeks and smiled. "Okay, deal," she decided, looking alarmingly like Bolin when she smiled up at her. They shook hands on it, and Pearl turned to go in after the rest, running past Asami who was waiting for Korra halfway up the hill.

The engineer had a patient curiosity on her lovely features as Korra walked to join her. "That may not have been the weirdest thing that's ever happened to us, but it was probably the weirdest thing this summer. Do you think Toph Beifong really had something to do with this?"

"I don't know... but it doesn’t seem that unlikely. If that old bag is still alive she's definitely the kind of person to think she should be in charge of picking my apprentice for me. And if she's dead... well. She had a very strong spirit. Something tells me that astral projecting isn't too far off for her." Korra huffed and took Asami's open hand, thankful for the comfort of it.

Asami pulled Korra's arm around her waist and layered hers over the Avatar's shoulder, linking them together as they walked up the hill to their house of chaos.

"Well, if Toph _did_ choose her for you, then I think we should trust her judgement."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. She was the one who helped you when no one else could. I think she knows what she's doing."

"Spirits, I hope her ghost didn’t just hear you say that," Korra quipped back and Asami leaned to burry her giggle in Korra's hair.

"Well, besides that, I think I like the runaway. She reminds me of you."

"You say that about all the apprentices," she returned but the simple fact that Asami had said as much already gave bloom to the idea in Korra’s mind.


	11. 185 AG

  
"You've gotta s-stop," Korra wheezed, her eyes brimming with tears but Asami had her face buried in her hands in an attempt to cover her own giggles.

"Don't... look..." she managed to heave back between fits of bubbling belly-laughter. Across the table Bolin and Opal simply stared at the two, utterly at a loss on the joke.

Mako appeared around the booth, dressed sharply for a dinner at Kwong's and looked stonily from his brother to the girls.

"What's with them?" He asked, sliding into the booth.

Bolin shrugged, helplessly. "We don’t know... they've been like this since we got here."

Korra was still struggling to master herself but Asami seemed to have found some semblance of composure and took a quick sip of her water, which answered Mako's next question. They didn't appear to be drunk, at least.

"We're sorry," Asami tried to answer the open question writ on everyone's face. "We just sat down and there was this guy-"

"He had this... this..." Korra slumped further into her seat, fresh cackling building up and Asami made a brave attempt to pick up the story.

"He just had these..." Korra's laughter seemed to only reset the entire cycle, however, because Asami lost her tentative hold on the conversation and leaned her head down to giggle behind her hands.

"S-so, Asami said... she said...." but it was never clear what Asami had said since neither woman seemed capable of explaining in any real sense. In fact it was all either could do to hold the other upright in what was one of Republic City's finer establishments.

"... Okay..." Mako ruffled and looked to his brother. "Well, in other news. I actually _have_ some news. You know, whenever you two are done."

"We're done," Korra swallowed hard and, refusing to look at her wife, cleared her throat. "We're done," she repeated, more soberly. "It's nice to see you guys. What's uh," she coughed again, trying hard to sound civil. "What's going on?"

Mako stared silently back at the two for another long pause before he would reply, as if waiting to see if they were actually settled down.

"Since you asked, I wanted to tell you guys that I met a really great lady."

Korra snorted and leaned her upper body into Asami, who promptly fell back into her own loud laughter. Mako scowled.

"I can meet girls alright! I'm a city hero."

The two only laughed harder, slaves to their giggling fit even as they both tried and failed to communicate that they weren't really laughing at him at all but the  head-shakes and hand gestures did little to explain.

"Why is that so funny? You think I don't date girls? Because I do! I date lots of girls. I'm not a loser!"

Slightly stunned, they both paused to look back at him in a moment of quiet... which really only did last for a moment.

"N-no one said you were a l-loser," Korra collapsed into a mirthful fit and watching them make a scene, even Opal started to chuckle along.

The waiter appeared, walking in on a scene of three women laughing incoherently (two of which were crying) a very red-faced fellow glaring at them and a gentleman in an Earthen States uniform wearing an expression of bare confusion.

"Perhaps I'll give you all a bit more time to look at the menu," he suggested and wandered back into the restaurant.

 

\-------------

 

As Korra reviewed herself in the gold filigree mirror of the Embassy washroom she thought that she looked reasonably pretty for such a muscular woman, but her reflection was nothing in comparison to the lady beside her, who was somehow growing more stunning with each passing year. It seemed to her that Asami was evolving rather than aging, and when the jade eyes in the mirror flicked to land on hers she felt a vague shutter of excite trickle down her back.

"What are you looking at?" Asami challenged the mirror, brushing back her hair.

"Nothing," Korra lied quickly, and put her attention on assuring that her dress was in proper order. She hated these formal events for their extravagance and plastic austerity, but her natural inclination to disassociate from the finery was curtailed by her desire to complement Asami Sato. It would be rude enough to show up at a Peace and Prosperity dinner in her typical, casual Tribal wear, but to embarrass the Future Industries CEO by looking the schlub would be downright crass, and Korra endeavored to never embarrass her wife. If she could help it: Asami never commented on Korra's state of dress, other than to compliment the color of a garment, but she knew that it would have annoyed the woman if Korra didn’t at least try to be presentable.

"Do you uh, like my dress?" She asked, attempting to sound casual as they preened in the private washroom. The party was taking place downstairs and as special guests of the Firelord, Korra and Asami had access to the second floor guest hall.

Asami looked back at her in the mirror, closing the metallic cap on her lipstick tube. "I do," she arched a brow and turned to her. "It’s very chic. But I think it'd suit you a little better if you adjusted it," she reached forward to brush Korra's strap off her shoulder and there was a confused moment before Korra realized what her wife was attempting to imply.

The engineer came flowing at her like a sudden force of crimson and black silk, snaking arms around her back and pinning her to the tile wall. Korra, sheltered between an unstoppable force and an immovable object, could only stutter on an objection.

"A-Asami," she hissed as lips glanced down her neck. "We don’t have time for this," she tried to scold, while Asami was already lifting her leg between Korra's thighs, rolling against her so enticingly. She leaned to meet Korra's gaze with her lust-glossed eyes, and Korra knew at once this was going to be a losing battle. She shouldn't have been surprised: although they had experienced the occasional lull from time to time, Asami's libido seemed to have kicked into overdrive sometime in the past year and there were nights when it was all Korra could do to keep up. She was partially becoming used to that hungry expression; to those hot fingers digging with determination into her clothes and hair, but Korra had become in no way immune. Asami still turned her on like a switch, with nothing more than a flickering motion. "Y-you have to give a speech in like... twenty minutes," she hazarded, feeling flushed under Asami's gaze. Only Asami could make her feel simultaneously shy and sensual with a look. The woman brushed forward to kiss her, hard and deep.

"So," she breathed, moving her hands from Korra's wrists to her hips. "That gives us fifteen minutes to get you off."

Korra moaned as those hands began to tug at her carefully-pressed dress while, just over Asami's shoulder, she could see their reflection in the mirror: a blushing Water Tribe woman encapsulated by an ebon-haired temptress whose presence utterly overpowered any sense of decency or shame. She watched as Asami's hand bunched the cobalt silk of Korra's dress and then her pale fingers glanced up Korra's darker thigh before slithering in between her legs. Korra saw her own expression startle into a moan and the muscles in Asami's arm grow distinct as she worked her. Seeing their reflections, exposed and moving together within the gold frame of the mirror, Korra felt her objections waver flimsily ... but there was still the party, and she had tried so very hard to not look a mess. She tore her gaze from the image of them and attempted to regain some semblance of composure.

"Can’t we-" she was cut off by another deep kiss. "...Pick this up late-"

One hand lifted to cup Korra's cheek and Asami brought their foreheads together, even as she kept her eyes locked. "Korra," her breath was laced with perfume and some distinct venom which melted the logic between a person's ears. "I want you."

Korra felt her final protest melt into nothing on her tongue. 


	12. 186 AG

"What....what?" Asami was at a loss for words as she gaped at the Polarbear Dog which had just climbed out of the covered truckbed. It wasn’t that she was unused to being around a Polarbear Dog, rather that she was used to being around a _particular_ Polarbear Dog and this lumbering, thin-coated oaf of a beast was not Naga. She took a step back as the animal began to look around, straining against the thick leather collar that Korra had a hold of.

"Remember, you said you wouldn't get mad?" Korra prompted but Asami was past mad and stuck on strict confusion. When her wife had shown up after a month in the Fire Nation aiding Capital City with the economic crises she claimed to have a surprise, and foolishly Asami had thought more along the line of seashells in a jar. The Polarbear Dog on her front lawn had her at a loss.

"But... but.... how?" Was all she could manage and Mako came around the side of the truck to help Korra with a thickly woven leash.

"We found him at a circus in Shu Jing," he was explaining quickly. "His name is Mushi."

"You mean you stole him from a circus in Shu Jing," she guessed dryly.

Korra was quick to the defense. "You should have seen him, Asami. He was underweight and he's still missing fur on his backside! They had him in a little cage doing tricks. He couldn't stay there!" She grabbed the dog's face and mushed his massive jowl against her cheek with a pout. "Look at the poor guy, he needs room to roam and hunt. And, I figured we have room..."

"We also _have_ a Polarbear Dog," Asami pointed out. "Who is not going to be happy with this, I promise you." Asami had a firm suspicion that Naga was not going to share her territory or her family with some young new cub.

Korra waved away the argument however. "Oh, Naga'll be fine. She'd love to have a friend."

......

Naga hated Mushi.

From the first moment she rounded the corner of the estate, Asami could tell that Naga was aware that something was wrong from the way her mane and back bristled upright. She let out a low, soft 'boof' of warning and ran up the hill to the house to investigate further, only to see Mushi with his face in her water trowel beside the carport. Mako, Korra, and Asami all stood by, utterly motionless and hoping for the best, but the moment Mushi took a step in Naga's direction the older Polarbear Dog started to growl. If it weren't for the fact that she'd known and loved Naga for nearly sixteen years, Asami would have been quaking in her shop shoes but all of Naga's focus was on the other animal, who only managed to stand up for himself for roughly the count of five.

"Naga," Korra tried, sounding friendly. "This is Mushi. He's-" Mushi took off down the hill towards the river and Naga was in quick pursuit. Korra screeched at them to relax but in vain and in an instant they were both pounding off through the forest, leaving Korra at a loss in their dust.

Asami just sighed and touched a palm to her forehead. "You know, Mako, I'd expect this kind of thing from Korra, " she lifted a quick glower at her friend. "But aren't you the responsible one?"

He colored a tint. "It _really_ was sad conditions, Asami. I don’t think he could have survived there for much longer."

She huffed, feeling more sympathy for Mushi even as she worried for Naga's sake. Korra turned back at her, deflated but not defeated.

"They'll be fine," she asserted. "She just needs some time to get used to him."

"Okay, but then what? She'll get pregnant?"

The Water Tribe woman scoffed. "Naga? No way. Polarbear Dogs are very selective with their mates, and I don’t even think she goes into heat anymore."

Asami and Mako shared a look.

......

In the late winter, Naga had four pups. Korra was pleased with the timing, since it meant that by the time spring rolled around at least three of the apprentices would be around to help with the general care of the litter... which mostly meant playing with and cuddling them to distraction.

"They're just so cute!" Toitoi squealed for the upteenth time and squeezed the fattest one to her chest. At three months old, the pups were already sixty pounds and had full range of motion, though still tended towards hours and hours of sleepiness. Naga in particular was glad for their sleep requirements since she seemed to find motherhood exhausting. When she wasn’t eating, she was snoozing protectively over the litter and Mushi had become a diligent surveyor of the property, taking regular laps around the hangar where the pups slept and growling at even the slightest of woodland critter.

Alruk sat holding a tailless pup much more delicately than Toitoi tended to and was petting between his ears with growing affection. Asami, seated with the girl pup, could tell that the Water Tribe boy was falling deeply in love. She looked up at Korra at her left and nudged her to take notice.

"You know," she suggested. "There are four pups. And you do have four apprentices, Korra."

At once, Toitoi, Alruk, and Zhao all swiveled to look up at their Master, eyes wide and bright with hope. Korra tutted.

"That's true... but Rohan already has Chubs. He can’t have an airbison and a Polarbear Dog." She kneeled down next to Asami to scritch behind the ears of the cub in her arms. "So maybe we'll keep one with us."

"Master," Alruk's voice was tight with keenness. "Do you mean it, we can keep them?"

She huffed a little. "Well, it depends on a few things. These little guys may be cute, but they're still wild animals. I've been with Naga since she was pup, and that's only because she chooses to stay with me. If these guys want to stick with you, then it's okay by me. But, you have to take good care of them and treat them like your best friend, because that’s what they are." She looked at Naga, who was curled up around the massive nest that had been constructed in the hangar for her and the pups, dozing loudly. "A lifelong friend."

 

\-------------

 

Korra tightened off the water pressure and exited the shower into a powder-blue towel, sighing at the soreness which rolled through her lower back. Kettle-bells could be ruthless. She paused in front of the mirror and lifted her arms, taking note of the lines and ridges that stared back at her in the reflection. It took a little more effort these days, it felt like, but her body was keeping up with her and her effort was paying off. Lin had once told her that it was a myth that a person was strongest at twenty-one and Korra was discovering that to be accurate. She felt that she only got stronger with age, especially as long as she worked as hard as she did. Fortunately, she had no end of sparring and bending partners to help keep her in top condition.

The Water Tribe woman flashed her reflection a cheesy smile and moved the towel up into her hair, scrubbing hard as she exited the washroom into the master suite which was lit by the bedside table lamp. She noticed, with an endearing warmth, that her wife (who _had_ been reading in bed) had apparently drifted off sometime during Korra's shower and bidden by an impish instinct Korra crept and slipped on top of her, straddling either hip.

"Hey," Asami muttered and took a deep breath, not opening her eyes. Her right hand was flung over her bridge of her nose with the other tucked lady-like on top of her stomach and her book and glasses in a polite stack beside her.

Korra 'hey'd her back. "I thought you were asleep."

"So, you climbed on top of me?" Asami opened a sliver of a green eye to look up at her. "Naked?"

She chuckled, entirely unapologetic. "Yep," she admitted and landed a kiss on Asami's cheek. "Are you going to bed? It's a little early."

She shook her head and added another of those panged sighs, and eight years of marriage (eleven of living together) told Korra that something was on her mind. She shifted backwards some, attempting to not roll her hips in a taunt, and waited.

"I've just been thinking," Asami began, looking at the ceiling. Korra knew Asami liked to think in bed, which could be disconcerting some nights when she'd roll to pull her lover into her arms only to find her wide-awake and lost in thought at the ceiling. "I think I want to quit my job."

Out of all the possible combinations of words in Korra's vocabulary, that particular assemblage was perhaps the last she had expected to come out of Asami Sato's mouth. She frowned but didn’t answer immediately, wanting to hear what Asami had to say before adding in her own two-cents. It was a method she'd learned both as a wife and as an Avatar, and in this particular instance it wasn’t difficult to fake. She was nearly too stunned to think of a response at all beyond, "W-what?"

To her surprise, Asami smiled and covered her face with her hands, laughing. "Spirits, Korra," she giggled. "Your face is just priceless."

Relieved that Asami at least had a good humor about things, Korra giggled too. "Are you messing with me?" She accused, grabbing for her wife's wrists.

"No, no," she promised, settling herself. "I'm serious, really. But as soon as I said it, it just sounded stupid."

Korra pulled Asami's hands up around her hips as they talked. "It's not stupid. But, why would you even be thinking about quitting in the first place? Are you that unhappy at work?"

Asami swallowed. "Yes and no. You know, I never even asked myself what I really wanted to _do_. I just took up my dad's company and started running it. I sold his machines and built his leftover contracts. Then, when the bidding started to build the train station, I just started building that too but you know what," she shook her head softly. "I was just bidding on everything back then. I was so desperate to get work for Future Industries and when a job appeared I'd volunteer and figure it out as I went."

Korra couldn’t help the smile that curled at the corners of her mouth. Her incredible, super-genius wife who, at twenty years old, had agreed to build the world's best transit with nothing but determination. Asami wasn’t paying attention to Korra's silent admiration however; she was studying her fingers which climbed up and down Korra's abdomen as she talked.

"I did really like it, especially at first. There was so much to learn and do. I'm really proud of the work that my teams and I accomplished. But, I guess I'm starting to realize that I've been going through the motions for a while now, just answering problems and moving money around."

"And... you don’t like answering problems and moving money?" Korra ventured, trying to uncover the heart of the issue. Asami groaned.

"I do like to answer problems," she said slowly. "I think that that's probably my favorite part of the job... and the one I do the least of these days."

Korra nodded, seeing a thread in the knot Asami was attempting to untangle. "Future Industries keeps expanding," she encouraged.

"Yeah, no kidding. I have a branch in every nation and my financial team has been on a spending spree. Did you know we bought three different laboratories this year alone?" Korra shook her head that she did not. Asami continued. "It's just starting to feel like all I do is approve acquisitions and deals and assign teams to contracts. I never get to _make_ anything anymore. The problems I'm solving feel so... inconsequential."

"Well, you could put someone else in charge of those kind of things and go back to working on Research and Development," she suggested but Asami flicked a sarcastic glance at her.

"I'm afraid it doesn’t work that way. I'm the owner of the company, I can't just 'hand authority' to someone else and then expect to still have my way. And I do want to have my way." For emphasis, she grabbed Korra's arms and pulled her towards her to kiss her. Korra grinned into the affection but wasn't satisfied to let this conversation die so easily. She shifted back upright.

"Okay, you can’t step down... what if you sold it."

Asami stared back at her like she had just suggested she start firebending. "Sell? Korra, that was my dad's company."

"Yeah, and he made cars, fifty years ago." She shrugged. "Now you're building cities and trains and whatever a 'computing processor' is and-"

"We're not building a computing processor we're buying the company that builds them," she corrected.

"Fine, whatever. The point is your dad built a car company and you’re running a... what is it called...?"

"Conglomerate."

"That. But your dad liked building cars. What do you like to do?"

Her lips pursed as she considered the question. "I like... to build things." She closed her eyes. "I like to design and build solutions to problems that no one else can solve."

Korra smirked. "That sounds like a billboard."

"It sounds like a fantasy," she replied.

They were quiet a moment as they both considered the problem before them, and then Korra slowly crawled closer until she had Asami in her arms, her hand tucked around her cheek to keep her attention. "I know you can do anything you put your mind to, I've seen it a hundred times. But, it sounds like even you have limitations." Asami flinched a little at that but Korra pressed on. "If you can’t sell the company, you can’t step down, and you can’t continue making business deals you have to figure out a compromise. Something that will let you still 'own' Future Industries but will also let you do the work you want. You're going to have to come to a compromise."

Asami closed her eyes, sighing long and loud in her biggest show of irritation. "I hate compromises."

"You hate compromises that aren't your idea," Korra corrected for her. "And you don’t have to go into the office tomorrow morning and start switching things around. Just, take some time. You know, it took me almost six months to be able to move my toes again?"

She nodded. "Yeah, you said Katara forced you to put all your focus on your toe until it worked."

"Exactly. If I can take six months to learn how to move a toe, you can take six months to figure how to fix your work problem."

She seemed to think about that. "Timetables. I like that. I can work with timetables."

Korra smiled and leaned to kiss Asami's forehead. "We'll figure this out, alright? I'll help you."

Asami was smirking up at her and one hand appeared from the coverlet to reach and switch off the bedside lamp, leaving them both framed in moonlight from the east window "Thank you for the advice, Avatar Korra," her voice fell an octave.

"You're welcome, Misses Sato."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's okay Asami, everyone questions their career at some point in life. What matters is not being afraid to make changes in the pursuit happiness and personal fulfillment.


	13. 187 AG

The high peel of the phone rang through Asami's dreams and dragged her, unwillingly, to the waking world. Momentarily confused, she blinked open one eye to cast around the dim bedroom while her brain put the pieces of itself back together. 

'Phone...' the singular thought appeared and she shifted to go in search of the sound but a weight around her middle pulled her back. Korra's body was bare and impossibly hot, and this closely cuddled she could smell the warm spice of her wife's skin on her back, even as she felt the bedroom draft outside the covers. 

"Korra," she mumbled, thickly, and moved again but again, the arm around her midriff held firm. Asami chuckled. "Let me up."

"Nuh-uh," was the response at her shoulder, while the phone continued to ring from the other side of the room. Asami tried to twist downwards but the Avatar was stubborn, her leg coming up to hook around her thighs and anchoring her in place. 

'It's too early for this,' she insisted and grabbed for Korra's wrist but even half asleep the Avatar was ready to win a wrestling match. She moved forward, pinning Asami on her stomach almost lazily. 

"Korraaaaa," Asami half-whined. "Don't you hear the phone?"

"Don't care," lips were running along her shoulder blades while masterful hands began to slip down her abdomen. Asami half-swooned. 

"What if its for you?" She made one last attempt just as Korra's hand grasped around her bottom then dipped between her legs, pulling a sheer gasp from her parted lips. 

"Believe me, they'll call back," she declared, pressing Asami firmly into the bed. 

 

\-----------

 

The crisp, acrid smell of the medical center assaulted Asami's senses before anything else and she flinched from it on instinct.

"Hey," a soft voice soothed somewhere nearby and her jade eyes fluttered open to see her wife leaning over her, her palm pressed around her cheek. Korra was smiling down at her but she could see even through the fog of disorientation that the expression did not reach the woman's eyes. "You're in Republic City," Korra was saying, still stroking her cheek. "Mako and Bolin found you outside of the warehouse."

"Warehouse..." she croaked, her mouth feeling like dried, burned cotton. As if reading her thoughts, Korra produced a glass of water and Asami took it from her with desperation. As soon as the liquid hit her stomach, her whole abdomen heaved over, but she grimaced through it and finished the cup. Slowly, her recollection of events were starting to return, as if they had all been lost in a dream and she was still pulling at the images to put them back together. "The Hotto facility," she looked up at her wife. "We saw them, Korra. Ikki and I saw the experiments, the lab files, everything."

Korra was nodding. "I know. Mako's been on it for the past seventeen hours. They arrested Hotto and there’s an injunction being raised against his partners but it’s a lot of legal jargon right now. But you don't need to be worrying about that."

Asami sighed, exhausted, and leaned back into the pillows behind her. A water-lamp dripped pleasantly to her left and she followed the bubbles with her eyes, still in and out of focus. "There was an explosion," she said abruptly and sat up, looking down.

Her right leg was propped above the sheets and wrapped in thick gauze from hip to calf, which was about the same time that Asami noticed the pain. Korra saw her suck her teeth and quickly took her hand to squeeze.

"It's just a burn," she was saying in that same calm, Avatar voice which Asami was not about to fall for. "It looks worse than it is."

"I want to see," Asami muttered and reached for the bandages around her thigh but Korra was pulling her hands away.

"Sweetheart, stop,"

"No, you stop," Asami ordered, an usual terror taking over her breast as she began to rip at the gauze. Someone... that firebender bodyguard of Doctor Hotto's had hit her with a fire whip. No, he hadn't hit her; he'd grabbed her, she remembered that now. She'd tripped and the whip had remained wrapped around her leg, dragging her across the laboratory floor.

"Asami," Korra grabbed her shoulders and pushed her with surprising force back into the pillows, forcing her to look up at her. "I've seen it, it's not that bad. You're in the best water-therapy facility in Republic City and the best Healers have been in to look at you. You'll have a scar but it's just a scar." Her grip relaxed some, attempting to soothe once again. "What matters is that you're alive and whole."

Asami knew she was going to cry, but she still tried to bite it back. Out of her many adventures with Korra and Team Avatar, she'd never been truly hurt before and the fact that she couldn’t see what really was wrong only filled her with a deeper dread. She recalled an image of Lord Zuko and his pink, scorched face and shuddered imagining what was under her bandage. She couldn't' even remember the explosion, really, but she did remember Hotto and the firebender. He'd turned on her after she'd been separated from....

She blinked. "Where's Ikki?" Silence answered and she looked back up to Korra, who was still holding her by the shoulders but looking distantly at the water-lamp. "Korra, where's Ikki?"

The fact that Korra didn’t want to answer told her everything that she didn't want to know, but she had to hear it from her lips.

"I'm sorry, Asami," she started and a drum of white noise filled Asami's ears as Korra tried to explain how the chi-blockers must have rendered Ikki defenseless and how she hadn't been able to get out of the explosion in time without her bending but the information was lost behind the drone while another voice rose to the forefront of her thoughts instead.

_'Did you know that Korra's got a crush on Mako?'_

"....Sweetheart," Korra croaked and leaned close to hold her, tucking her chin around her shoulder but Asami sat motionless, listening to a memory.

 


	14. 188 AG

Korra walked into the hotel room with an armful of towels but still managed to notice how quickly Asami, standing in front of the mirror, pulled her robe together. The motion was out of place for her wife, who was much more inclined to pull her robe apart when she caught Korra peeking at her.

"What is it?" She wanted to know, putting the towels down on the bed's edge but Asami just shrugged.

"Nothing."

Korra tilted her head playfully, taking a step towards her. "You're hiding something..."

To her surprise, Asami did not rise to her teasing. Instead, she looked away and shrugged. "I'm really not."

Korra bit her cheek but decided against prying any harder and instead chose to move the subject along. "Do you want to head down to the beach? Everyone else is probably camped out there by now." It was the first vacation they'd taken all year and the first group vacation since Naga had her pups. It had meant a lot to Korra to get away from her typical responsibilities and be with her family for a change but Asami had been reticent ever since their departure from Zaofu.

Asami began to flick through her suitcase, despite the fact that it had already been emptied into the hotel drawers directly after arrival. "You should go ahead, I think I'm going to make a few calls to the office first."

Korra paused with her hands in her pockets, looking from her wife to the geometric motif of the hotel rug and counting down from ten before she said anything brash.

"Asami," she started carefully. "What is going on?"

Rather than deflect, Asami just sat on the edge of the bed. "This was a mistake. I can't go out there like this." She answered in a flat voice.

Korra quieted a sigh and shifted along the bed towards her. "Like what?"

"Like what?" Asami repeated back at her, as if she were pretending to be dense. She stood and flung her robe off her shoulders, revealing the trim lines of her white bathing suite which cupped her curves so appealingly that it caused Korra a momentary catch of breath. "Look at me."

Korra -was- looking at her, truly, but when Asami turned to the full length mirror she realized that they were seeing two very different things. The Water Tribe woman saw how Asami's eyes fixated in the mirror to the ribbon-like scar which wrapped around her upper thigh and down around her knee. The mark was not very wide but it was long, winding up nearly half of her leg in the mark of a fire whip, which had long since healed but not without the shiny pink reminder. Korra swallowed.

"Sweetheart, it’s just a scar."

Asami shook her head. "I hate it."

It was sometimes an effort to not try to remind Asami that Healers had worked wonders on the wound, which could have been so much worse, or that it was placed in a way that hardly anyone ever saw it. She knew better than to point out that Asami was lucky to even be alive or that plenty of people, including her, had scars. No one walked out of life unscathed, after all.

No, Korra could not say any of these things to her wife, who had always suffered the frailty of vanity but she knew she had to do something.

She stood to move towards Asami and before the other woman could pull from her, she wrapped arms around her chest, holding her from behind and kissing her bare shoulder.

"Korra," Asami flinched from her image in the mirror, as she tended to ever since the accident, but Korra only kissed her lower, tugging at the edges of her suit. When her hands came down around Asami's hips, the engineer couldn't resist a low chuckle. "Korra..." she warned and then turned to her, only to be caught by the Avatar's lips. Korra began to draw her back towards the bed.

"Let's just stay in," Korra whispered, pulling her down on top of her.

"No," she contested, even as she was being so easily pulled in. "No, you wanted to go to the party."

"Yeah, but you've got me like this," she pointed out, kissing into Asami's neck and the heiress groaned.

"I know what you’re trying to do."

"Then it shouldn't be so hard," she quipped, slipping her hands into the bottom of Asami's suit. With a dry huff, Asami pushed herself up to look properly at her wife.

"You're trying to make me think I'm still sexy."

"You _are_ sexy," she insisted, firmly. "I've been with you since I was seventeen and I still try to figure out why the Sato heiress wants to slum around with me," at that, Asami looked categorically offended but Korra quickly cut her off. "But if you think that your scar defines you, then I don’t want you to do anything that's going to hurt you."

She lowered her gaze, black tresses falling like a curtain onto Korra's shoulder. "It doesn’t _define_ me. It's just... embarrassing."

"Asami," she reached to brush back the soft fringe of hair. "You earned that scar doing something courageous. You saved all those Spirits from being experimented on and that’s just one of the smaller, amazing things you've ever accomplished. That's nothing to be embarrassed about."

Her wife was quiet for a long moment before she finally took a shaky breath. "I know you’re right but... it was also the night Ikki died."

She knew it had been coming, laying in wait beneath the surface of Asami's troubled heart but to have it brought to voice, finally, was like hearing the news again for the first time. She curled her fingers against Asami's cheek, remembering how hard the loss had been for all them but Asami more than most.

"I know, but trying to hide from what happened doesn’t honor Ikki. And it doesn’t honor you either."

Asami closed her eyes, leaning into Korra's open palm, and after a while she fell heavily into her arms to breathe into the crook of her neck. They were silent in the warm, salt-tinted room for a while before she finally stirred again.

"Alright, let’s go to the party," she decided, but Korra surprised her by grasping her hips instead.

"Wait, let's do this first."

"Korra," she chuckled, trying to squirm from her wife's grasp. "I thought you were kidding,"

"What? I was definitely not kidding about how sexy you are. I'd never kid about that," she grinned as she lifted up into her kiss.

They would eventually make it to the party with their friends, and with some trepidation Asami did decide to wear her bathing suit after all.

 

\--------------  
  


In the sun-bathed training arena Asami was wearing a close-fitting leotard and high-skirt, waiting for Toitoi to make her move. The fifteen-year-old was dressed similarly, except that she preferred the loose blue trousers her Master was fond of and always trained in her bare feet, for some unaccountable reason. Asami at least had the wisdom to wrap her feet and ankles but she noticed that teenagers seemed less fearful of inconveniences such as dirt and broken toes.

It became obvious as they squared off against one another that Toitoi was going to wait for Asami's move, and while she didn't like to encourage foolhardiness she also knew that hesitancy was just as dangerous. Asami lunged, pushing Toitoi into a false defense only to step back and lead her forward. As Toitoi's hand came out to strike, Asami moved through her to take her wrist and spin, pulling Toitoi's body in a circle but the young girl was accustomed to these holds. She locked her wrist to pull closer into her body and made to charge her weight into Asami but the engineer shifted her stance, hooking her foot through Toitoi's legs and around her ankle. She pulled and Toitoi went crashing backwards. Asami had her wrists in a lock so quickly that Toitoi barely had time to catch her breath before tapping out.

"Damnit," she sighed and accepted the hand which Asami reached down for her. "I don't know how nonbenders do it."

"Is life a little too hard without firebending?" The engineer asked in a tease as her opponent brushed herself off.

"Maybe not _too_ hard, but it’s... different." She rotated her wrists, which were quickly becoming sore from Asami's holds.

"Exactly, which is why you need to learn how to fight without it. Chi-blockers only get more advanced and you don't want to be in a compromised position because of one."

Stepping back into the starting position, Asami's skirt rode high around her thigh and she paused to readjust from the draft, unintentionally drawing Toitoi's attention as she did. She didn't notice the way that the girl's eyes flicked over the pink rope of her scar but she did see the subtle shift in the her posture when she looked away.

"Is um," Toitoi cleared her throat. "Is that the scar from the firebender?"

Asami straightened, taking advantage of the pause to adjust her wrist wraps. "Yes," she answered simply.

Toitoi did not take up her position one again, but instead shuffled a bit of sand with her toes. "It looks like it hurt."

"It did," she agreed after a moment, peering at her. "But that was a while ago. Now its just skin."

Toitoi didn’t seem so convinced. "You know, we read about the Hundred Year War in class. With the Sun Emperor and stuff."

Asami could sense something particular on the girl's mind and decided to relax back on her heels, letting her talk. "That's right, that happened when Avatar Aang was a child."

"Yeah," a tight frown crossed her fine features as she looked towards the tree line, reminding her a bit of the way Korra would cast her thoughts on the horizon. "It's just weird to think about. Firebending, I mean. You know, we can't live without water or air. And we can’t really live without earth either. But if you think about it, fire isn't a life-thing. It’s just something that destroys. It's not like it makes anything." Her gaze flicked back and landed once again on Asami's leg, though the worst of the scar was now covered by the fall of her skirt. She shifted on her toes again and then locked her bright golden eyes back on Asami. "I'm sorry."

Asami dropped her hands. "For what?" She queried, genuinely confused.

Toitoi just rolled her shoulders. "Nothing. I mean, I'm sorry that you got burned by one of my-"

Asami covered the distance between them in two quick strides, landing her hands around Toitoi's shoulders. "Hey, that attack had nothing to do with you or any other firebenders. Just because one person does something wrong doesn’t villainize everyone else in a group." Toitoi was looking away again and, hurt for her sake, Asami curled back a stray lock of her hair behind her ear. "When we were around your age, Korra and I had to fight against people who thought like that. Did you ever hear about the Equalist Rebellion?"

Toitoi, who always enjoyed doing well in school, cleared her throat. "The Equalists took over Republic City in 170', to establish a nonbending society. They were led by a man named..."

"Amon," Asami dropped her hands, crossing her arms instead. "He was a actually a waterbender, but he claimed that he was an innocent victim of a firebender. He convinced thousands of people to turn on all benders and to forcefully take away their bending. People like my father."

She twisted a look of curiosity back up at Asami. "Your father was an Equalist?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It sort of wasn’t great for our relationship," she added, a bit wryly. "But the problem was that my dad was so hurt over what a bender had done to our family that he convinced himself to punish all benders. To hate them. And the result wasn’t a peaceful, happy society. It was a war that almost ripped the city in half. That's what I'm trying to tell you, blaming a whole for the actions of a part doesn’t equal out to anything. And yeah, the Fire Nation tried to take over the world a hundred odd years ago. Since then, your people have also built one of the most peaceful centers for learning and development out of the five nations and have also backboned the United Forces.” She failed to mention how that fact had led to the recent financial crippling of the dynasty. “Something bad happened a long time ago but," she tilted her head at the girl. "You don’t have to be a part of that. You just learn all you can from it and do better."

"My parents think we should just forget about it," she added, a bit sullen.

Asami cocked an eyebrow down at her, more imperious than she meant to be. "I don’t think that's a good idea either. I used to," she lifted her skirt trim. "I used to wish I could just erase anything awful that happened to me, but then I started to realize that forgetting the past doesn’t make it go away. Whatever awful thing that happened _happened_ and pretending that it didn’t won’t help anyone or stop it from happening again." She dropped her skirt back over her knee, leaving the tail of the fire's whip to peek down her calf. "I think it’s better to try to accept it and learn what you can from the experience. That way maybe you can keep from repeating history."

Toitoi seemed a bit nullified and she offered Asami her quirky smile. "That's pretty good. Maybe I'll say that at the next Gala when everyone crowds in on 'the Avatar's apprentice' again."

Asami made a deliberate sigh, rolling back on her heels. "I see. Everyone knows about you now?"

"Yeah. My mother started bragging about it last year and you know how the aristocracy is. Suddenly my family gets invited to _everything_ and people want to know what I think about _everything_ , like I'm Master Korra's personal conduit."

"You kind of are, you know."

Toitoi cringed. "Please don’t say that." A sharp sound from the house pulled their attention from the training circle up the hill to the back of the house, where four figures were clowning loudly and sprinting their way. "Half the time I don’t even know why Master Korra picked me."

"Yeah," Asami murmured into the horizon, watching as her sun-brimmed wife and three of her scantily-clad apprentices barreled for them. "I know what you mean."

"Asami!" Korra shouted, a clear ring of excitement in her tone. "Guess what?"

"What?" She called back, beginning to grow nervous now that Korra didn’t appear to be stalling in her mad charge at her, nor for that matter were Zhao, Rohan, or Alruk.

"Pool time."

"No, Korra," but it was already too late. A burst of air collided with Asami's back just as Korra charged into her from the front, cushioning her against Korra's momentum when the Avatar bent low and grabbed her around her legs to hoist her over her shoulder. "Korra!" Asami rebuked, loudly. "We were sparring!"

"Then it’s time for a break," Korra explained, running towards the pool a few yards away on the west side of the house with an exaggeration of energy. The pool overlooked the river and Korra had worked with the apprentices to build a slide which would connect the two, one which Asami blatantly refused to use on the premise of stupidity.

"But I'm all sweat-" Asami tried vainly to argue as Korra took two more long strides and leapt into the water with the engineer on her shoulders, disturbing a flock of Spirit Gulls with their splashing. They were submerged for approximately three seconds before Asami surfaced and pushed a fistful of water at her laughing wife. "You're such a pain," she accused, with only a hint of amusement in her voice.

Alruk, who always mimicked everything Korra ever did, took one sly look at Toitoi and bent to grab her around her knees as well.

"Oh no you don’t," she snapped and kneed forward immediately, knocking him breathless on his back in a swift motion. Irate, she turned and stalked to join the others in diving into the pool, leaving both Asami and Korra to wince in his defense. Alruk was so stunned he couldn't even groan.

"Hey, buddy," Korra cupped a hand to her mouth. "That move only works when a girl _wants_ to be picked up."

"Don’t tell them that," Asami scolded, but Korra just turned her attention on her next and Asami had to struggle to remember why she was supposed to be indignant in the first place. It wasn’t often that Korra was so playful lately.

The apprentices took little time to arrange a competition, as was their usual form of amusement when left to their own devices, and began to turn to the water slide and leave Korra and Asami in relative peace to float in the shady corner together. The pool had been a necessary addition to the estate a few years previous, since a Water Tribe woman like Korra felt dried out if she didn't get a chance to swim at least every other day and in a landlocked region like Zaofu her options were limited. 

Determining that they were being ignored by the kids, Asami turned to Korra in an undertone.

"You need to talk to Toitoi," she instructed simply, while Korra was trying to slip her hand under her skirt.

"Why? Did you beat her up?"

She pursed her lips. "No. Well, a little but that’s not the point. I think she's having a hard time with being the Avatar's Apprentice. Not here, with you, but at home. It sounds like she's getting a little bit more celebrity than she was wanting."

Korra harrumphed back at her. "Good. Being in the public eye is part of the whole 'save the world' deal. I mean, it’s the worst part, but it’s something they have to get used to and something they'll have to help the next Avatar with too."

"That doesn’t mean you shouldn't talk to her about it," she chided.

Dripping arms lifted out of the water to wrap around Asami’s back, pinning her to the pool’s edge. “Yeah, you're right,” she relented. “You're almost always right.”

Asami mentally pinpointed on the disclaimer 'almost', as if she were ever wrong. "Is that why you picked me?" She asked in a lilt, piggybacking off her earlier conversation.

Korra chuckled and kissed into her neck. "I thought you picked me. Asami Sato could have any man in the Five Nations but somehow wound up building a house for a stubborn Water Tribe girl in the middle of nowhere," she leaned a little to be able to look at her. "The way I remember it, I was just lucky you noticed me."

She bit her lip, gazing back at this astoundingly obtuse, brilliant woman and unable to resist, she surged forward to kiss her with all of the honey-sweet emotions which Korra built up in Asami's chest. Korra was quick to return in kind.

"Hey!" Rohan's voice cut through their moment, sounding from the top of the water slide. "There are children here, you know."

In answer, Korra lifted her wrist and with it a whip of water, then flicked it at the airbender to splash against his chest, just hard enough to push him back down the slide with a screeching yelp. Asami laughed and pulled Korra back to her.

"I told you that slide was stupid."

 

\--------------

 

Another summer was coming to a close outside of the study window and Asami watched the way the light bent in shades of gold on the leaves with quiet distraction as she listened to the argument wafting up from downstairs. Ordinarily she wouldn't like to pry, but neither Korra nor Zhao were quiet on a good day and today was one of their worst.

She could almost see Zhao's stubborn lip, her arms crossed over her chest and feet wide apart: like an earthbender.

"I don’t care. I'm not going."

"You don't get to make a decision like that. You're fourteen years old."

The silence that met Korra's declaration suggested one of Zhao's brusque shrugs.

"Zhao, I will drag you to that academy if I have to. I'll drop you in the middle of the yard in front of everyone."

"Then do it!" Came the shrill response. "You can't make me stay there. I told you."

"Yeah? Well If you don't stay there and finish out the year, then you can't come back here in the spring."

There was another moment of silence and then a high-pitched, "Fine!" Followed by a thud of rapid footsteps up the stairs. The apprentices all lived in the guest quarters in the east wing and Asami saw only a blur of green skirts and black hair as Zhao came hurrying past the study door on the way to her room. A slam from the nearby hall confirmed where the kid had gone and she sighed a little, waiting for the next angry Bender.

Sure enough, Korra's blunt steps came a few minutes after, much slower and weighted by weariness. She appeared in the study door and slumped wordlessly into the lounge opposite Asami's chair.

She decided to wait until Korra started the conversation, which took several minutes of tense silence. At last, the Avatar leaned her head back into the cushions and, even tired and annoyed, Asami was still amazed by the hard beauty of her partner.

"Why did I think that training apprentices was a good idea?" She asked the ceiling and Asami snorted.

"You wanted to have someone to help you save the world. It's been working pretty well, so far." Rohan had taken on his tattoos and ascended the Air Nation ranks in his siblings' footsteps, accepting a role as Peacemaker for the Air Nation while Alruk had begun to leverage his role as the Avatar's Apprentice into a mediator position for the Northern Water Tribe's delegation of foreign affairs. Toitoi had taken a slightly different route with her training... which had included leaving the summer early to go home after a very heated argument between her and Korra. And then Zhao... well, Zhao simply didn’t want to leave at all and Asami couldn’t quite blame her. Private School was dull, regimented, and socially exhausting. It was an environment where some thrived while others suffocated and Asami could see easily which one applied to Zhao Ji.

"Well, at this rate I'll have a waterbender and an airbender. The next Avatar will have to figure out Earth and Fire on her own."

Asami closed her book and leaned her cheek on her fist, looking across the room at her wife. "You and Toitoi will figure this firebending problem out. And as far as Zhao goes... I think you should let her stay."

Korra actually sat up to look at her properly at that. "Stay? Here? You, of all people, can’t be serious."

Asami shrugged. "She doesn’t want to be in school and we both know that she doesn’t do things she doesn’t want to do. If you take her back to Omashu she'll just run off. Again. And it's more dangerous for a child to be roaming the countryside than it is to be here on the Estate."

"But she has to go to school." Korra pressed, frustrated. "And.. we aren't her parents."

Asami brought her brows in a line as if to question that theory. "We're the closest she has. If we don’t look out for her, who will? Her Trust fund?"

Korra drummed her fingers on the leather sofa arm, looking towards the same window Asami had been staring at before and Asami watched as the scales balanced in her wife's mind, weighing options and possible paths before landing on what she felt was truly 'right', an instinct which lived someplace closer to heart. "Okay," she leaned forward. "If we let her stay here... then what?"

"Well, you'll have to change the way you're training her. She'll have to upgrade from being the Avatar's apprentice to being the Avatar's... assistant." Korra looked back at her, needing elaboration. "You'll take her with you on your missions and let her see what it really means to be the Avatar. I think she'll be good at it."

Korra seemed to consider the idea. "Well, okay, but what about school? And what about missions that are too dangerous?"

Again, Asami had the answer. "We have our own library in the house, and hiring a tutor would be a tax write-off for me. And, when you have to do something too dangerous, she can stay here with me. Or with the Metalbending Clan." She tilted her head. "There are worse things for an earthbender than studying with the Beifong family."

Korra smirked at that and then rubbed back into her brunette hair, scratching through it as she thought. "Something tells me you've been planning this," she said at last.

"It just seemed obvious to me," she offered. "But, first things first, you need to talk to Toitoi."

Korra groaned and leaned into the couch with fresh aggravation. "I would if I could!" She protested. "She doesn’t want to talk to me."

"Because she thinks you're mad at her."

"But I'm not mad at her! I actually admire what she's trying to do" Korra wrung her hands, helplessly. "Her questions about firebending are important and it’s that kind of thoughtfulness that I like about her. I just wish she wouldn't give up on her training."

"I know that, Sweetheart. But she feels like she disappointed you, on top of being disappointed in herself. So, you're going to go to Hira'a and talk to her, and in the meantime Zhao and I will hangout in Zaofu."

Korra blinked back at her and after a few moments she fell back into the chair with an amazed scoff. "I guess you have everything planned out for me, huh?" Asami smiled back. "Well, all-knowing-wife of mine," she stood and came towards Asami's chair, leaning her weight on the armrests to hover above her. "Want to tell me what should I do next?"

"Well," she checked her watch. "You're going to go tell Zhao that she can stay here, and then we're having dinner in thirty minutes, and then we're all going to listen to that concert on the radio, and then around ten I figured that you and I could go to our room and have sex."

Korra grinned and kissed down her cheek. "Sounds like a plan to me, Miss Future Industries." She straightened and went to do as bid, but at the door she paused to look back at Asami.

"Shower sex?"

Asami arched an eyebrow at her. "Bath sex?"

"Oh, deal," she smiled and went down the hall, leaving Asami with her reading.


	15. 190 AG

"Avatar Korra," the nasally voice broke through the Republic City evening and Korra tossed her gaze skyward in an award-winning eye roll before looking over her shoulder. She had expected a reporter, but a glimmer of ribbons on a dark red field proved her wrong at once.

'Soldier courier,' she groused and held up a hand as the young man jogged to catch up to her where she stood by Asami's roadster. They had only just pulled in to the deck at the Civic Center and handed off to the valet.

"Let me stop you right there, guy," she disdained to use any former military titles unless entirely necessary. It wasn’t that she disliked the United Forces, but she was no soldier and didn't care to sound like one either. The courier appeared surprised and hurried a glance between Korra and Asami, who was tucked up in a well-fitted black duster and staring back with an expectant annoyance. "Whatever's in your hand, I don’t have time for it tonight. You can leave it for me at the Future Industries building."

The courier shook his head. "I'm sorry Avatar Korra, I can't do that. I have explicit orders to-"

Korra reiterated her 'halt' gesture. "Listen, my wife is receiving an achievement award from the City Council in less than a half hour. The _Vice President_ of the United Republic is honoring her tonight. So, unless you can compare whatever you're about to say next to an army of mechas charging down on the city, it can wait."

Facing the courier, Korra didn't see the blush that warmed Asami's cheeks but she did see the the soldier's studious frown as he considered her parameters and apparently fell short. She gave him a curt nod of 'that's what I thought' and turned to walk with her wife into the building's side entrance.

Asami gave her a secret smile through the veil of her hair. "I feel so important," she remarked.

"Hey, tonight is _your_ night," Korra reminded with a smirk, squeezing the hand tucked around her arm.

"Mount Kiro erupted early this morning," the soldier's voice broke through their affectionate colloquy and Korra found herself turning without even meaning to.

"What?"

The courier shrugged, helpless. "The details are in the docket, but there are three different villages at the foot of that mountain, Avatar."

Korra took a step towards him. "You need to find Lieutenant Bolin, he's the best Lavabender I know. He's supposed to be inside the Civic Center but if you don’t see him, look for his wife Opal. She's a member of the Air Nation. Has the Temple been briefed?"

"I don't know, ma'am. I was just sent to you." He offered the docket again, which she took and opened quickly, scanning the typed report.

"I’ll need a transport," she muttered.

"Docked and ready to depart, Ma'am."

"Alright, go and get Bolin and I'll head that way." She snapped the docket closed and while he hurried off to follow orders she looked around to see Asami gazing back at her, shoulders stubbornly rolled back. Korra tilted her chin at her. "Sorry. I've got to go."

An expression which Korra could not quite place flashed across Asami's eyes, but it vanished when the heiress tossed back her hair. "Yeah. Call me when you can." She turned to walk to the center entrance and Korra felt her wife's upset like lead on her chest. On instinct, she moved a step towards her but Asami's strides were long and powerful, her heels echoing in a hollow rhythm through the deck.

"I love you," Korra called at her back.

Asami paused at the door. "I love you too," she offered over her shoulder and went inside.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may be wondering what happened to 189: basically it was the year of Zhao Ji drama and also Korra took Toitoi with her to the Temple of the Sun warriors. But you guys didnt want to hear about all that :P


	16. 191 AG

A lone light guided Korra through the darkened hangar between the hulking silhouettes of various mechanical prototypes and past the line of cars to the workshop at the back corner of the garage where a figure was hunched over a bench, a record player spinning demurely to her left. Naga and Mushi snored in a loud white pile just within the cone of light, their audible contentment a concomitant to the record. The workstation functioned like an office-away-from-office, complete with a desk, benches, a couch, and a myriad of tool boxes all neatly arranged on the shelves above. What exactly it was that Asami was busily adjusting, Korra could not be sure but she knew a box of parts had arrived at the house that afternoon and she had seen her wife's enthusiasm in opening the box, much like a kid on their birthday.

"Hey," she announced herself and yawned, not wanting to startle Asami or the Polarbear Dogs (who didn't so much as twitch). Her wife turned to look over her shoulder, a pair of goggles sitting on her face which magnified her eyes like pretty green saucers and gave Korra a laugh.

"Oh," she pulled the goggles down around her chin. "What are you doing down here?"

Korra shrugged, the blanket tossed around her shoulders making her head look as if it were floating above a sea of powder blue. "It's three-am," she answered and moved to wrap her arms over Asami, encapsulating her in the blanket with her. She could tell at a glance that she didn't have Asami's attention, however. The engineer lifted a hand to affectionately pat Korra's arm but her gaze was unfocused, her mind churning on whatever problem which the assemblage of metal gears and wires in front of her had presented. "Geniuses have to sleep," she reminded.

"I know, I will," came the fake promise. "Just let me finish a few more things."

Korra rolled her eyes. "You have work in the morning."

Asami turned a baleful smile on her. "I'll be fine," she patted her again and Korra knew she wasn't getting through. Relenting, she gave her forehead a kiss and then turned to slump onto the couch behind her, wrapped up in the cocoon of her blanket while Asami turned back to her work. Snuggled within the sonance of her wife's tinkering and watching her silhouette under the lamplight, Korra began to doze and did not see when Asami put down her tools and looked over her shoulder at her, silently staring with soft appreciation. After a few contemplative minutes she took off her goggles and jacket and stood to slip into the cocoon as well, squeezing close.

Korra grunted in her sleep. "We should go to the house," she suggested, tucking herself into Asami's arms.

"Okay," came the easy agreement but neither moved, not until the first glare of morning drew them back into the waking world. 


	17. 192 AG

  
The little white light on ‘line 2’ blinked on the receiver, pulling Asami's attention up from the blueprint designs she’d spent the past hour working through. Typically one o'clock to two-thirty was reserved for 'creative block' on her daily schedule and her secretary knew to only let the most important of calls through... which meant the tiny light bulb filled her with a small dread. ‘Important’ was often synonymous with ‘bad’.

Checking a preemptive sigh, she put down her pen and picked up the line. "Asami Sato," she greeted without inflection, her right brain still dominating her thought patterns and making conversation a challenge.

"Korra Sato," the voice on the line responded and Asami could hear the tease in her grin. She snorted.

"You said you weren't taking my name."

"I mean, it's kind of a weird tradition if you ask me but I do a lot of weird things." Asami repressed another sigh, only this time it was one of deep-seated affection. Korra's absence was like a physical void in her chest and just the sound of her voice helped feed that gnawing ache. "For example, I call my wife after breakfast and ask her to read me poetry." Even over the phone line she could imagine Korra leaning against the wall, casual and indiscreet.

Asami's gaze flicked to a small paperback book peeking from her purse. "You must be having a bad day if you actually want me to read you poetry," she commented while she reached for the book, which had been dog-eared so many times it barely lay flat at all.

"I am, believe me. And I just need to hear your voice."

A warmth which only Korra could provide spread through Asami’s cheeks. "I needed to hear yours too," she assured. "Do you want to hear 'The Last Summer'?"

"Um," she faltered. "I like that one but it's too long. We're riding out in a few minutes."

"Oh," she deflated some. "Where are you going?"

"Crom's Peak. Alruk tracked these Spirit poachers to a camp that way and Zhao is already halfway out the door."

Asami's brow knit slightly. "How far of a trip is that?" She wondered, trying to recall a mental image of the North Pole's map.

"Ordinarily? Five days. But thanks to modern technology and Future Industries our snowmobiles should make it in about two. You're saving my life even from an office."

The quip fell mirthlessly on Asami's shoulders as a gross annoyance took the place of any warm thoughts she'd been enjoying only minutes before. "I thought you were going to be home by this weekend..."

"Well yeah, I did too. But the situation out here keeps getting more complicated." There was a pause which Asami did not bother to fill. "I'm sorry.” The response was so overused it may as well have been a recording.

Asami just shook her head. "You know that the Trade Dinner is this Sunday."

There was a muffled sneer on the other line. "Yeah, but trying to protect all the peace I've spent my life building is going to take some priority here."

"Don't do that. Don't try to make me feel guilty for wanting to be with my wife."

Another long pause. "I want to be with you too, Asami."

For some reason the statement only fueled the anger she already felt simmering in her stomach. If that were true then why was she in the North Pole while Asami was in Zaofu? If her mission was so important then why didn't Korra simply ask her to come with? Did she think that she couldn’t handle it, or did she simply not trust her?

The hand around the paperback clenched as the silence between the lines grew stale.

"Look, I think we're about to gear up," Korra's attempt at retreat was hasty and awkward. Asami stared at the meaningless lines of the blueprint on the desk in front of her.

"Alright. I guess I'll see you when I see you," she forced and, unable to listen to Korra's love, she placed the phone on the receiver. 


	18. 193 AG

The council room door opened decisively, despite the harried outcry from the hall, and Avatar Korra strode over the threshold in classic form. Her clothes were neatly stylish, though simple, and her tall leather boots bore the black mud of the Capital Island crater. Small flecks of the volcanic dust trailed behind her as she walked past the blackwood table and its well-dressed attendees directly for the scowling young man seated at the head.

“Avatar Korra, you were not invit-”

“Cram it,” Korra growled and dropped her fists on the table’s edge, so close to the Fire Regent that the younger man could have smelled the wind in her hair. The entire table shuddered, but for one woman sitting at the far end. “You hold a weapons summit, on Roku’s Day, and you think I won’t hear about it? Lord Iroh isn't dead a month and you're behind his daughter's back, plotting?” She straightened, her gaze thunderous and dark. “This superweapon isn’t going to happen, that’s the end of it.”

Regent Shoji’s eyes narrowed defiantly back at her. “You are not the authority of the Fire Nation, Avatar Korra. Princess Izumi is and until she is of age-”

Korra looked around the room, pointing a steady finger in the direction of the Regent. “Anyone at this table who agrees to build this weapon becomes a threat to the peace and safety of the Fire Nation, and the rest of the world. You should all be aware that I _will_ take action against any power that threatens the safety of the world.”

“Is that a threat, Avatar Korra?”

Korra twisted and bent to be eye level with Shoji. “You can bet it is,” she uttered.

Golden eyes flicked between the Avatar’s for long enough that Korra wondered distantly if it was possible to be electrocuted this close to another person, but Shoji made no further reply and she straightened upright again. “You know the technology behind Kuvira’s Spirit Canon was outlawed and destroyed anyway.”

Having said what she meant to, Korra turned on heel and began for the open door.

“Well, then I suppose it's a good thing your wife is here.”

The Avatar halted in her step and as if she could suddenly feel the instinct of Asami’s gaze on her she swiveled towards the woman where she sat at the far corner of the table, Iknik Varrick at her right and a pen clutched in hand. Asami was tight lipped, looking inscrutably back at Korra in the dangerous silence.

......

 

“So, Machine Solutions builds weapons now? Is that it?” Korra was pacing up and down the atrium as she talked, her entire body animated with her anger while Asami stood still and poised, her arms crossed delicately around her middle. “You’re the Avatar’s wife and you're building a superweapon?” Korra was so incensed she was starting to visibly sweat.

Asami took a slow, even breath. “No, I’m not. My company was invited to the summit and I wanted to come.”

“Why?” She demanded, taking another step towards her. “What’s one good reason for being here?”

“To know what Shoji was planning,” Asami answered, her polite composure taking on a tactile frailty.

“To-” Korra stopped herself and shook her head, voice lowering to a rapid whisper between them. “That’s not your job, Asami. That’s my job, and now a room full of the the most powerful people in the Fire Nation think my wife is running around behind my back. They think you’re undermining me.”

Asami leaned towards her, her mask slipping in light of Korra’s foul ire. “I don't care what they think.”

“That’s really easy for you to say, you're not the one who was just humiliated.”

“No, actually I think it was Regent Shoji who was humiliated and I’ve never been the one to question your methods, Korra, but that was a little over-the-top.”

Korra growled. “I am _not_ loosing another city, I am not allowing another Kuvira to come into power.”

“Then quit shouting at me and listen to them. Shoji’s scared, they all are. They’re looking for a way to protect themselves.”

That seemed to get at least part way through Korra’s temper. “They have me, they don't need _you_ to build them weapons.”

At that, the engineer’s glance shot down the hall and away from her wife. “It's not that easy for the world to share the Avatar.”

An uncomfortable quiet spanned between them as Korra resettled, stubbornly not meeting Asami’s eye. “Why didn't you tell me you were here,” she asked, sullen like a disappointed child.

She sneered. “I certainly tried to. No one knows where you are these days, and it's not like you have a magical mobile telephone to call.”

“I'm just busy,” she grumbled, becoming defensive once more. “I don't really have time to stay put.”

“Yeah. I know.” 


	19. 194 AG

Korra was glad to be home. In fact, she was down-right excited. She had Bara saddled and ready from the moment her airship touched ground in Zaofu and with little more than a friendly wave at her Metalbending family she was off to take the city Lift down to the foothills south, her eye on the horizon. Bara was glad to be home too, she felt, but then again the Polarbear Dog was happy all the time no matter the circumstance. She'd only recently started riding with Korra and had taken to it with the same enthusiasm as her mother, though Korra could feel the cub's inexperience during more dire situations. She still missed riding with Naga, but her best friend's joints had grown swollen and long treks were now beyond her health whereas Bara was ready to go anywhere, anytime.

They took the cross-country paths and made good time by avoiding the main road. Ten years ago the foothills had been practically empty but now the road busied with transports from all across the Earthen States, which was good for Zaofu but at times aggravating for Korra. Bara lumbered up the private drive a little after noon and the house was cast in shades of blue shadow and golden sun, picturesque and welcoming... until Korra noticed the covered truck outside the carport. Even as she slowed Bara in front of the walkway a man she did not recognize stepped out of the side door with a small crate meant for the truck.

"Hey," she dismounted and the man startled backwards, nearly dropping the package. "Who are you?"

"Er," he put the box down and took off his cap. "I'm with the company," he lifted a thumb towards the truck, where the logo 'Strongarm Movers' was emblazoned in red. He gave her a nervous smile. "It's a real pleasure to get to meet you, Avatar Korra."

"Uh, thanks," she gave him a prolonged, suspicious stare before turning to Bara. "Stay," she ordered, pointing to the ground where she was already sitting. Bara just tilted her head to the left while Korra shouldered her glider staff and, quelling an apprehensive shiver in her stomach, marched through the door which the mover had vacated. She nearly missed running into a second man on his way out with a Late-Imperial vase she recognized as a gift from the estate of King Wu. The moment Korra was out of sight, Bara stood and began to nose her way down the hill.

"Asami?" Korra called, moving through her home which looked to have been politely ransacked. Books were missing from shelves and boxes littered the living area and Korra had no clue as to why. A third mover was putting away Asami's collection of antique glass eggs and looked up with the same glimmer of surprise as the man outside.

"Avatar Korra," he squealed.

"Yeah, it's a pleasure or whatever," she gruffed, her agitation growing exponentially with each step into her house. "Where's Misses Sato?"

"Oh," he lifted a finger straight up, indicating the second floor study, or so she assumed. "Will you tell her we're running just a little behind? Maybe a few hours?"

Korra grit her teeth, her temper boiling just at the edges of her temples. "Actually, you and your crew should take a break."  
  
"Well we don't really have time-"

"Take," she attempted to breath through her nostrils instead of outright spewing fire. "A break."

No further suggestion was needed as the mover put down the glass eggs and quickly about-faced to weave through the labyrinth of crates out of the house. Korra swiveled her attention on the stairs and took them two at a time to find her wife in the study, just as she predicted. Asami was standing in front of her desk, the same she'd had relocated from her father's old study at the Republic City manor, dressed in a high-waisted skirt which gave volume to her soft curves and wearing her hair up and braided back for work. She looked up the moment Korra entered and the Avatar thought she saw a flash of disappointment in her gaze, a look she'd never felt from Asami before. She had expected to come home to open arms and a bottle of wine and hours of rapid conversation on the living room rug. Instead, her house was mysteriously gutted and her wife was standing there looking at her as if she'd been rude to interrupt.

"Korra," she said the name with a sigh.

"What the hell is going on, Asami?" Korra stepped boldly into the room. "Why are there movers here?" There was a glaring answer, of course, but that answer seemed absurd to her and in a world where logic ruled there needed to be a better answer than the obvious.

Asami took a small breath. "I'm selling the house and moving back to Republic City."

The statement came rapidly, within a single breath, yet it hollowed a small hole in Korra's gut like a bullet. Almost at once the space began to fill with fire. "You're selling _our_ house and moving? Since when?"

"I just finalized plans a few weeks ago."

"You... you..." she couldn't even put together coherent thoughts, let alone sentences. "Why?" Is what she finally managed to pronounce.

Asami tapped her fingers on her desk in a distracted rhythm. "Because... because...."

"Asami!"

"Because I can't fucking live here anymore, Korra," she shouted, startling the Water Tribe woman despite her own anger. "I built this house for us to share and now I live here, in the middle of nowhere, alone."

"What are you talking about? _We_ live here."

"Are you serious?” She scoffed. “When was the last time we had dinner here, together?"

Korra paused, trying to count backwards. "It was... it must have been before I went to Omang."

"Which was two months ago, Korra," she reiterated with hurt. "You fly in and out of this place like its a hostel. You're here for a few nights and then you're gone and it's just me."

Korra blanched with a moment of guilt, but shook her head to be clear of it. She wasn't going to let Asami’s damsel-in-the-rain routine skew what was really happening. "Hey, this is hard on me too, okay? You think I want to be gone all the time? I have responsibilities."

"And I'm not one of them, I guess," Asami crossed her arms, staring across the desk at her.

"Spirits, not this again," Korra scrubbed hands through her brown hair. "How many times do I have to explain this to you? I just spent three weeks breaking down negotiations with a company that is actually trying to lay stakes in the southern Spirit World portal and you're mad at me because I wasn't home for dinner? How selfish can you be?"

"I'm the selfish one?" Asami bristled. "I'm the one who looked after Zhao when you couldn't. I'm the one who funds every single mission you've been on for the past twenty years. I'm the one who has made a home for you to come back to and I'm the one who gave up on having children because _you_ couldn't commit to them."

Exasperation seethed from between Korra’s teeth. "Yeah, because if I can't do enough to make _you_ happy how am I supposed to make kids happy, Asami? In fact, not having kids is probably the _least_ selfish thing I've done and I thought you were okay with that; not waiting ten years to throw it back in my face."

"Well I thought I was okay with it too until I realized that I'm forty-two without a family. I'm sick of being alone, Korra." She straightened and when she spoke again her voice fell with that same weariness from before. "So I'm moving back home to be with people who love me."

"This is our home," she pressed, voice cracking. "We..." she gestured at the room they stood in. "We've spent thirteen years here. You read to me on this couch, we make love in that shower, we finally learned how to grow edible food in the garden. We trained the apprentices here..." she shook her head, feeling a scorch at the back of her throat while visions of summer danced out of tempo through her mind but Asami wouldn't look at her. "Don't do this."

The room's silence echoed back at them then, reverberating the awful fact that Asami would not respond and Korra would not move. Finally, the engineer whispered, as if afraid to break the silence any more than was absolutely necessary.

"I'm leaving for Republic City the day after tomorrow."

Korra closed her eyes, wanting to shut back the obvious threat of her emotions. Twenty years ago she would have ripped the room down around her, but that was a much different woman. The Avatar of twenty years ago was fueled by fear and momentum but Korra had grown beyond fear. Asami wasn’t a foe she could beat into submission and marriage was not something one could win: it was a match of ‘give’ and ‘take’. Asami had given her this home and now she was going to take it away.

She took a long, shaky breath, seeking out the center in her breast where Raava’s peace slept.

_‘I really wanted to build you a house. I thought it would be good for us.’_

Wordless, Korra turned and left the room.

 

\------------

 

The call came at Air Temple island in late June, sometime after eight in the morning, and Jinora's toothless daughter happily brought the message to Korra where she was meditating under the pavilion. Korra nodded and gave the girl's pigtails a playful tug as thanks, then stretched to get dressed. She took longer than normal in getting ready, a fact which Jinora politely did not comment on, but as she rounded the living room corner she nearly walked head-on into a furiously irritable Zhao.

“Are you finally going to talk to her?” The twenty-year-old demanded with typical candor. Korra sidestepped the girl.

“Yeah,” was the gruff answer but Zhao wouldn't be easily ducked. She followed suit, close at heel.

“Well what are you going to say to her?” Korra just shrugged, which was apparently not the response Zhao wanted. “Aren't you going to at least take this seriously?”

On the front porch, Korra halted and let her head fall back in a long, tilted sigh. “Listen Kid,” she turned to face the earthbender. “I’ve known Asami since I was your age. Try to think about that, for a moment. As old as you are now, that’s how long I’ve been in a relationship with her. And something that I’ve learned about Asami Sato in all that time is that she doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do. Every kindness; every charitable, selfless, courageous act you’ve ever seen her do was something she did because she wanted to.” She eased on her heels some. “So, I knew when I came here that I was going to have to wait it out until she wanted to see me but you _know_ I’m taking this seriously.”

Zhao’s frown turned into exasperation. “But it’s been five weeks and you haven't talked! You two always talk! You talk so much, it gets annoying.”

Korra smirked at that and continued her walk for the ferry down the hill. “You know that just because we're not talking doesn't mean you and her can't talk, right?”

Zhao’s silent steps beside her spoke volumes. “Ah. You’ve been talking.”

“We had lunch a few times. I didn’t tell you because…” there was no real because and they both knew it. Zhao loved Asami in the same way she loved Korra and didn’t owe her an explanation.

“Did she say anything about me?” She asked, voice level.

“No,” another blunt reply. “She didn’t ask either. But, I didn't tell her you were here.”

Korra nodded, thoughtful, as they walked down the path.

“...Are you still mad?”

She considered the question. “No. Not about the house. I figured out that this wasn't really about the house, it was about everything else that’s wrong and the only thing worse than being mad about something is being mad about the wrong thing.”

“What does that mean?”

Korra stopped again and faced her, offering her apprentice a wise, sad smile. The morning was unreasonably bright, casting them both in a clear summer spotlight and dazzling off the choppy waters of the city bay. It was a beautiful day, in all romantic honesty.

“Zhao, I know you have a lot of questions but there’s something bigger you need to understand. I don’t actually have all the answers, not yet at least." She wet her lips as she tried to explain. "Look, you’re never going to wake up one day and be a perfect, finished person. All of life is one long search for answers. You grow and you change and what made sense one day won't mean anything the next but that’s all part of living. And, the same goes for relationships. It’s not a kata routine you memorize, it's something that you tend to and adjust and tweak and let grow. I’m really lucky to have loved someone long enough to learn that much but I’ve still got a lot left to figure out.”

Zhao’s gaze wavered under Korra’s lecture. “You make it sound like a relationship is really hard.”

“It’s not,” she shook her head. “But, it's not simple either.”

They continued towards the ferry again, companionable in a contemplative quiet but were interrupted by loud steps rushing down the path behind them.

“Master Korra, Zhao Ji!” She looked back to see Rohan, tall and bald, running to meet them. He barely stopped before barreling into Zhao, who had tensed noticeably, but the Airbender was lighter on his feet than he appeared. “Jinora told me you were going to the city to see Asami.”

Korra cut a groan, knowing better by then to think that anything could be done or said on Air Temple Island without everyone hearing about it. “Yeah.”

“Can I come?”

“No,” Korra was growing exasperated with her apprentices at this rate. “Believe it or not, this is a private, adult conversation between me and my wife.”

“But,” he lifted his shoulders, awkwardly slouching. “I'm a Peacemaker... and you guys haven't talked in like thirty eight days. This is exactly the sort of problems Peacemakers are trained to deal with all the time.”

Korra rolled her eyes at the both of them, told herself to not kick Tenzin's kid in the shin, and walked out onto the dock. With a preternatural ease she slipped into a ferry boat with the apprentices close behind.

“You’re not coming!” Korra rounded on them as they began to follow into the boat.

“What if you need our help?” Zhao started to insist.

“I don't need anyone’s help with Asami. Its not like she's going to beat me up.”

Rohan pouted. “But you haven't talked to her in five-”

A burst of wind pushed both benders back a half-step. Korra gave them a glower and bent to untie the lines of the boat.

“We won't even go inside with you,” Rohan hazarded. “We’ll just go see a mover while we wait.”

He tossed his arm around Zhao’s shoulders, squeezing her close to his side like welded pair of helpful do-gooders. Korra flicked a look between the two of them and noted Zhao’s blush.

“... Fine,” she admonished, sourly, and let the two climb in. She could deal with whatever was going on between the apprentices after she had her own love life sorted.

......

Korra arrived at the foot of Future Industries tower by half-past nine and was admitted not to Misses Sato's office but to the penthouse suite instead.

It was strange to be walking down the hall as a guest and when she realized the door was locked she tapped her pockets for a key on instinct only to recall she hadn't had one to the penthouse in over five years. She exhaled and rapped the knocker.

Asami answered a few minutes later, dressed but with her hair in damp curls and a towel tucked around her shoulders. The entire image of a half-prepared Asami Sato was so odd that for a moment Korra didn't notice that Asami looked just as surprised to see her, though she did recognize that her necklace was missing.

"Hi-," the Avatar mumbled.

"Hey-" Asami greeted at the same time and they stood in awkward silence at the threshold. Korra had her hands in her pockets in a stance Asami recognized as her attempting to be non-combative and she felt a flicker of appreciation.

"I got your message," Korra answered the unasked question, looking up through shaggy bangs in a way which Asami was convinced must have been intentional. Sixteen years of marriage and surely Korra knew what it did to her when she looked up at her that way. "You wanted to talk?"

"Yeah, I do" Asami shuddered freed of the spell and stepped away to invite her inside, closing the door behind her. "I called the Island like an hour ago... I didn't think you'd respond so fast."

Korra was looking around the suite, which was already well-situated from the move. "Yeah, well, I was conveniently close by," she tossed Asami a small smirk over her shoulder.

"Oh," she surmised that Korra had been staying on the Island, an idea that struck her as unexpected. She had assumed that Korra would go to the South Pole or be in Zaofu... which was why she had spent all morning making calls to their different friends and leaving messages across the four nations in hopes that one would know how to find her wayward wife. The realization that she had only been on the other side of town made her feel somehow foolish.

"Do you want tea?" She asked out of habit and busied past her to the kitchen, feeling a tangle of heartstrings in her chest at having Korra in the apartment and needing a place to focus her attention while she thought of what she was going to say, as if the month apart hadn't given her enough time already. She had been sure last night that she was prepared for this, and yet now with Korra’s eyes on her she was faltering.

"Asami," Korra called to her and she stopped, swiveling her attention back to her. "I have something I need to tell you."

The way she said it only tangled her more tightly but Asami nodded, standing in the middle of the kitchen and looking with pale anxiety at the Avatar. Korra cleared her throat.

"I've been lying to you, for a while now." She looked down and in the pause Asami thought she might actually faint with how hard her entire abdomen was twisting. Lying? Korra couldn't lie her way out of a parking ticket. What could she possibly have been lying about, and for how long? A protective instinct was terrified to know if it was ‘someone else’, but Asami forced that thought hastily away. Korra’s loyalty was so deeply-seated that it was as much of personality as her determination or her compassion.

"When you got hurt, I acted like it was okay but... it wasn't. It scared me," she lifted her gaze up at her then. "It terrified me, actually. I just couldn't handle thinking about someone hurting you like that, and I started to really think of what it would mean if you were killed on a mission. It was starting to keep me up at night." She sighed and moved to lean against the doorjamb, eyes trailing along the tile floor of the kitchen. "I’d watch you sleep and feel so guilty about what happened, but I knew it wasn't fair of me to ask you to stay out of danger… so I didn't. Instead, I just quit inviting you to go with me. I kept hoping you'd just get distracted with work, like you usually do, and would want to stay home in Zaofu. But... " she shrugged. "You know how the Avatar-thing is. It's not like I stayed home too. I mean, I missed you all the time but I guess I thought you were doing your stuff with the company and I was going my job as the Avatar and we were meeting in the middle. I didn't really think about whether or not that was what you wanted." She sighed again. "So, I'm sorry for being a bum wife. I realize that this distance between us is my fault.”

“Korra, it isn't,” Asami stepped quickly towards her, voice high with tension. This was not the conversation she had been expecting and she was struggling to latch onto a single comment through the barrage of information coming at her from Korra. Her wife wasn’t taciturn, but neither did she vocalize her feelings very freely. Asami had come to learn that Korra prefered to think through her own questions until she sourced a problem and only when she found the problem she couldn't answer would she bring it to Asami to help puzzle the rest together. Still, for her to have kept so much anxiety to herself for so long was at once upsetting and quite explanatory.

“I know I could have tried harder to talk to you about what was wrong but I didn't. I shouldn't have packed up and moved without talking to you. I just kept avoiding telling you how I felt because I was afraid you'd call me selfish," Korra grimaced but Asami pressed on. "But I was being selfish-"

"No," Korra grabbed for her hands. "You've never been selfish in your entire life, Asami. I know that for a fact," she smirked. "And I'm sorry I made you feel that way. I knew it wasn't going to be easy being married to the Avatar but I keep making it harder." She took a deep breath, studying Asami's hands in hers. "I've had a lot of time to think about it and I realized that I keep trying to maintain balance in the world but I don't have any balance in my life. Not anymore. I spent all this time training the apprentices to help me take care of the world and I never let them actually do their job," Asami snorted softly at that. "I guess I'm just as much of a workaholic as you are."

Asami squeezed her fingers. "It's nice that we have that in common."

Korra hazarded a smile at her. "Yeah, we're doing a great job." The room stilled as they looked fondly at each other. "But I think we did a better job when we worked together. "

"I really miss that," she emphasized, and she did. It hurt when Korra quit making her a part of Team Avatar, but it felt somewhat vindicating to know there was a reason and that Korra's own fears had manifested it rather than something Asami had done or failed to do. Korra's smile was broadening and Asami resisted leaning to kiss it.

“So,” Korra quirked an eyebrow at her. “Does this mean we aren't getting a divorce?”

Asami opened her mouth only to snap it shut again. She shook her head, bewildered. “You thought we were having a divorce?”

  
“Well…” she trailed. “Selling the house and moving cities and not talking to me kind of had that implication. You’re not even wearing your necklace.”

Asami looked down, touching her bare throat. “It’s in the steam cleaner,” she explained

“The what?”

Asami motioned with her hands. “Its this box that uses a steam nozzle to disinfect jewelry. Or anything small enough to fit inside, really. I got it as a-” she shook her head, seeing Korra’s confused head tilt and realizing that she was rambling off topic. “I’m sorry, I just... needed time to think.”

Korra brought her hands up to cup Asami’s cheeks, lifting her chin to look at her. “Hey, I once went walking for six months without saying a word to anyone. Believe me, I get needing time to think.”

She met the Avatar’s blue eyes, wishing for a fervent moment that she could have given her wife the same understanding that she was being given then, and then she was abruptly reminded of what she had wanted to say to begin with. “I didn't sell the house.”

“You didn't?” Korra puzzled back at her.

She shook her head. "It was wrong of me to try to. That house was a gift to you, and I want you to keep it." Reluctant to leave Korra’s touch, she detached herself and hurried to the living room to grab an envelope from the table. She brought it back to a curious Korra and put it in her hands. "I actually signed the whole thing to your name, just in case...." she swallowed.

Korra frowned at the envelope and then back up at Asami. "Just in case?”

“I’m not sure,” she shrugged, feeling helpless in a way which was frightening to a woman who'd always had the privilege of her authority.

The Water Tribe woman scoffed and set the envelope gently on the counter. “You thought I’d want to live there, without you?”

Unable to land on a proper response, she made another demonstrative shrug.

That's crazy," she decided, staring hard at her. "I don't want to go anywhere without you. Asami, I know we've spent a lot of time apart in the past but this month was awful and..." she shook her head. "If we're going to stick together then lets _stick_  together. Come on my missions with me again. I need you."

Asami couldn't trust herself to respond. How many years of her life had she spent standing across from Korra and feeling awed and empowered by the strength of one person's love? She nodded, not seeing the use of any more words, and let herself be pulled by the magnetism of her wife's raw resolve.

 

For a long moment they stood across from one another, two anxious heartbeats drumming to the same building tune and waiting for the crescendo to pull them together. For twenty years they’d swayed this way, dancing around one another at the very first and then in time through peaks and lows, hand-in-hand and thankful for the chance to share a life together. With tentative caresses they melted slowly back together, and then harder with all the biding strength of two sure hearts. Korra moved forward, pulling Asami against her with the same hard determination which she used against every other obstacle in her life; the same she used to win every goal she placed for herself. Asami fell forward into her, willfully abandoning her trepidation for the comfort of her love and in the calm quiet of the room they held together, nothing but ringing heartbeats and deep, grateful breaths.

 

\- End-

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its easy to be distracted by all the things life has to offer, which is why its so important to be reminded on occasion of what you're missing when you're looking away. 
> 
> Thanks as always for keeping up with the story and keep an eye out for Book V of 'A Second Glance', sometimes this summer.


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